This edition brings together the works of one of the key critics of Russian émigré culture of the 20th century— a theorist of the “Paris note,” compiler of the first anthology of poetry from the Russian diaspora, “Yakor’ (The Anchor),” and mentor to the writers of the second wave of émigration.
Georgy Adamovich (1892–1972) — poet, literary critic, and translator. The book “The Vindication of Drafts” includes his memoirs, journalistic articles, and selected poems.
“Initially, Georgy Adamovich is a poet with a distinct individuality, but one among many; by the end of the 1920s, he is above all a literary critic—and already one of the few. His gift as a memoirist is beyond dispute: Gumilyov, Akhmatova, Bunin—everyone he wrote about—appears on these pages as living people. But Adamovich does not reduce his recollections to mere ‘portraits.’ Through them there emerges his understanding of literature—an understanding he remained faithful to throughout his Paris years, and which found its fullest expression in the book ‘Commentaries.’ This movement from Rosanov’s ‘shameless’ ‘Solitude’ to Pascal’s ‘modest’ ‘Thoughts’—a return to the essay.” (Sergey Fedyakin)