Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (1894-1958)
Photograph signed for Valentin Kataev. 1929
Photograph signed ('M. Zoshchenko') and inscribed 'with the most affectionate love' to [Valentin Kataev], n.p., 12 May 1929.

Image with blind-stamped signature of L. Leonidov, Moscow, 135 x 83mm. Inscribed in Russian on the image.

Inscribed to Valentin Kataev, jokingly using the feminine form ('Valichka Kataevoy'). A hero of the First World War, Zoshchenko published his first work in 1922, and developed an individual style of popular satire, characterised by an accessible, compact prose. Valentin Kataev (1897-1986) had published his first, hugely successful novel, Rastratchiki, in 1926: his friendship with Zoshchenko was particularly close at this period, including two shared holidays in Yalta in 1926 and 1927. The photographer L.Y. Leonidov (1889-1952) made a well-known series of portraits of writers at this period.

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