“…I would be happy to find a little bit of a place in Russian literature…”: Abraham Vysotsky’s letters to Maxim Gorky

The published materials are the correspondence of Maxim Gorkyand Abraham Leibovich Vysotsky, which had been awaiting publication for manyyears. Publishers raise the question of A.L. Vysotsky’s place in Jewish literature inRussian and in Russian literature. It is noted that Vysotsky’s works, appreciated byM. Gorky, who published a number of them in the journals “Letopis’” and “Beseda”, were not included in the canon of both Russian literature as well as its RussianJewish branch, and Israeli literature in Russian . The writer's biography, genesis andpoetics of his works have so far remained beyond the attention of researchers, andone of the objectives of this publication is to try to fill this gap. In the introductory article, relying on archival materials, Vysotsky’s biography is reconstructed, a numberof important facts are clarified, including his date of birth, information about hiseducation, literary activity and connection with the Zionist movement is presented, themost significant periods of his life in Russia and Eretz Israel, where he repatriated in1920, are described, and information on translations of his works into other languagesand experiments on their staging is reported. Particular attention of the publishers isfocused on the history of interaction between Vysotsky and Gorky who never metpersonally. This interaction developed exclusively in correspondence, which initiallyconcerned Vysotsky’s attempts to offer his short stories to Gorky for publication inhis journals. Letters are published according to autographs from the Gorky Archive(Institute of World Literature). The publication is supplemented by two appendixescontaining Vysotsky's essay “Maxim Gorky and Zionism” and his drama “Blood ofthe Maccabees”.