'Crazed by insomnia'. 1925

Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, 1868-1936)
'Crazed by insomnia'. 1925
Autograph letter signed ('M. Gorky') to Maria Marcovna [Miloslawski: Mrs Franz Hellens], Villa Gallotti, Posilippo, Naples, 22 November 1925.

In Russian. One page, 274 x 213mm. Provenance: Neal Auction Co, 2014.

'Crazed by insomnia': Gorky in a state of collapse after his move to Naples. Gorky is delighted by the recipient's letter, and by the praise from Franz Hellens which it contains. 'If only he could see me at this moment! I have become a complete savage, crazed by insomnia and fever, the rain, the move from Sorrento to Naples, and by a crowd of other inconveniences. I am so worn out that my hands are shaking and I have difficulty in writing'. Gorky knows the book that Hellens sent him (a Russian translation of his works), which he thinks abominably translated by Marie Vessolovsky: he has already severely criticised her previous transtations in reviews. 'It is impossible to tell you how faulty she is. And yet she should know the Russian language ... But no doubt she does not translate herself; she will have had the work done by some uncultivated young girl and handed in the translations without correcting them'.

The Belgian novelist Franz Hellens (1881-1972) and his Russian wife Maria Marcovna Miloslawski (1893-1947) had married only a few months previously

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