Pgs. 192 and 193 of David Markson’s copy of Tolstoy: His Life and Work by Derrick Leon:
On which David Markson underlined much of the following passage in red ink:
“And before the end of the same year, when Dostoevsky, after his brief hour of triumph, lay dead, Tolstoy once more wrote of him to Strakhov (who was to be his biographer): ‘I only wish I could express all I feel about Dostoevsky. Though I never saw him, or had any personal communication with him, now that he is dead I realize that he was nearer, dearer and more important to me than anyone else.’”Markson also placed two red vertical lines in the margin next to the paragraph containing the above passage.
—
This sentiment of Tolstoy’s re: Dostoevsky pops up in the first novel of Markson’s Notecard Quartet.
On pg. 101 of Reader’s Block:
“Though I never saw him, or had any personal communication with him, now that he is suddenly dead I realize that he was nearer, dearer and more important to me than anyone else.
Said Tolstoy of Dostoievsky.”Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were near and dear to Markson. They both appear often in his Notecard Quartet. And they both also unsurprisingly have stories in the Markson-edited collection of Russian literature Women and Vodka (later published as Great Tales of Old Russia).
As Françoise Palleau-Papin pointed out:
“Russian literature mattered a lot to Markson, even if he minimized the importance of his Russian-Jewish family background.”
- This Is Not A Tragedy, pg. xxviii.—
David Markson’s copy of Tolstoy: His Life and Work by Derrick Leon is owned by John Harrison. The above scan is used with his permission. Copyright © John Harrison.
(via russkayaliteratura)
