tolstoy, autograph (5 Ergebnisse)

8vo. 2 pages on bifolium. In Russian. To the unnamed P. L. Uspensky, acknowledging receipt of 500 roubles: "I will try to use them in the best possible way for the benefit of those in need. The canteens have now been discontinued and will resume from the winter, if there are no obstacles to this. If this happened, then I would distribute the help entrusted to me [.] to the exhausted and sick [.]" (transl.). - Published from the retained copy in copy book 1, ff. 220-221. The recipient had written to Tolstoy on 10 August to say that he was sending him the money to help those affected by crop failure. - In fine condition.

8vo. 3 pp. French. Letter slightly faded. To the young medicin Paul Fontaine in France: Mon ami Fontaine" [] Ce m'est une grande joie de savoir que des hommes qui se trouvent dans des conditions tout � fait diff�rentes des miennes, s'unissent en esprit � la v�rit� qui constitue ma vie. D'apr�s votre lettre je vois que, comme quand deux cercles co�ncident par leurs centres, touts les rayons co�ncident, toutes les questions de la vie qui se pr�sentent � vous se r�solvent de la m�me mani�re comme je les aurai r�solus moi et tous ceux qui sont p�n�tr�s de l'esprit chr�tien. Vous dites que vous �tes ind�cis sur l'effort que vous devez faire pour faire comprendre � votre fr�re la v�rit� qui vous donne la vraie vie. Je crois qu'il ne faut jamais envisager comme but l'influence que nous pouvons avoir sur notre prochain. Le chr�tien ne peut avoir qu'un seul but: celui de remplir la volont� de Dieu aussi parfaitement que possible, t�cher d'�tre, comme il est dit, aussi parfait que notre P�re qui est aux cieux. L'influence que nous pouvons avoir sur les autres ne doit �tre que la suite incessante de cette tendance � la perfection, mais ne doit pas �tre notre but. Quoique ce serait un plaisir pour moi de vous voir et de vous connaitre personnellement, je ne vous conseille pas de venir. La vie que vous menez et dans laquelle vous remplissez la volont� de Dieu est pr�f�rable � un voyage qui est presque toujours une perte de temps et une d�pense d'argent qui ne nous appartient pas. Je vous r�p�te que d'�tre en relation avec vous, est une joie pour moi, mais je crains qu'un voyage entrepris dans l'unique but de causer ne soit une []".

8vo. 2 pages on paper with perforated upper margin. In Russian. With one enclosure. To the unnamed philosopher Pyotr Petrovich Nikolaev in response to Nikolaev's new book. Tolstoy has read Nikolaev's book, and writes with a critique: "There is a lot of very good material in it, but you did well not to release it, and to want to work on it some more. The criticism of materialism is excellent, but you have not clarified what we feel and call matter. I think that there are other spiritual essences in which, just as in us, the basic essence (God) manifests itself partially, limitedly [.] / The book, as it is now, has merits [.] but the subject is so important that one cannot treat it seriously and attentively enough. / It is a shame that you live abroad [.]" (transl.). - P. P. Nikolaev (1873-1928) was philosopher and Tolstoyan who published a number of works in defence of freedom of religion. He was forced into exile in 1904, and lived in Nice from 1905 onwards. Tolstoy corresponded frequently with Nikolaev and engaged closely with his works - indeed, one of his last diary entries refers to reading one of his books. The work Tolstoy comments on in the present letter has not survived in the Yasnaya Polyana library, but may have been "Poniatie o boge kak o sovershennom sodanii" ('The Concept of God as the Perfect Basis of Consciousness', Geneva, 1907), which attempts to elucidate Tolstoy's ideas of God and the soul. - Enclosed is a letter to Nikolaev from Tolstoy's friend and editor V. G. Chertkov from 20 January 1903, encouraging him to send the manuscript of an article for Tolstoy to comment on (4to, � page). - Published on the basis of the retained copy in copy book 7, fol. 392f.

182 x 139 mm. Signed in Latin script on the image. With two enclosures. The well-known image by Vladimir Grigorievich Chertkov shows Tolstoy with his granddaughter Tatiana Sukhotina at Yasnaya Polyana. Together with a cabinet photograph signed by Tolstoy's eldest daughter Tatiana in 1897, and a portrait photograph signed by Tolstoy's youngest daughter Alexandra (undated, but after 1931). - Tatiana Mikhailovna Sukhotina was aged 5 in 1910: she later married Leonardo Albertini, son of the celebrated newspaper editor and historian, Luigi Albertini. Her mother, Tatiana Lvovna Tolstaya (1864-1950), was Tolstoy's eldest daughter: she married Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin in 1899, in the face of her father's fierce opposition; she was later guardian of the museum at Yasnaya Polyana, and director of the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow in 1923-25, before emigrating to France and then Italy. Alexandra Tolstaya (1884-1979) was Tolstoy's youngest daughter, secretary and later executor: she emigrated to the United States in 1931. The photographer, Vladimir Grigorievich Chertkov (1854-1936), was a prominent Tolstoyan, and later became the writer's literary executor. He was by some accounts responsible for the rapid deterioration in Tolstoy's relationship with his wife, which culminated in his extraordinary escape from home immediately before his death at Astopovo railway station on 7/20 November, only six months after his inscription of this appealing portrait.

140 : 90 mm. Signed head and shoulders photograph of the bearded author. Signed in black ink to the upper side of the image. - On the verso the address of the recipient and one word in Tolstoy's hand.