Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, 1868-1936)
Suggesting material for their journal, Beseda. 1924
Autograph letter signed (‘A. Peshkov’) to Solomon Gitmanovich Kaplun, Villa il Sorito, Sorrento, 21 November 1924.

In Russian. 1¼ pages, 277 x 213mm.

Suggesting material for their journal, Beseda, including an article by M.K. Gandhi. Gorky tells Kaplun not to wait for a response from 'the timid man' for a work they are expecting for the sixth issue [of their journal Beseda]; the same writer has 'given a few sections of his novel ... personally, I would like to have them published immediatley in the 7th issue'; regarding other writers, he has written to [Leonid] Leonov, who has promsied something, and also to Panteleimon Romanov, who has not replied; other materials in hand include an 'interesting play' by Romain Rolland and an article by M.K. Gandhi. Gorky's own planned story has been delayed, but he suggests publishing work by the physiologist I.P. Pavolv or the geographer and biologist Lev Berg, noting that the manuscript they have by the latter is 'anti-Darwinian, it cannot be published in Russia'. He concludes with a list of Russian writers with whom he thinks German readers will not be familiar, and notes that 'Grzhebin have very interesting manuscripts. Perhaps we should consider translating Leonida Leonova into German? Soon a novel by Fedin should be out ... I will keep my eyes open for any novelties'. A postscript proposes a German edition of a book by Leonid Andreev, and a proof of a letter by Vladislav Khodasevich.

Gorky had moved into the Villa il Sorito in Sorrento, only five days previously: it was to remain his home until his return to Russia in 1933. The mention of Romain Rolland and Gandhi is interesting: Gorky had played a key role in persuading the Soviet leadershp to commission Rolland to write a biography of Gandhi in the previous year. The recipient, S.G. Kaplun (1891-1940) was a journalist and publisher, the owner of the publishing company ‘Epoch’ in Berlin: he founded the literary and scientific journal Beseda with Gorky in 1922, and it ran until 1925.

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