Author Spotlight
‘If you intend to pursue work’ by Harvey Pekar
A while back some of you were asking about Russian authors. Then yesterday I found a note on a shelf in my Man Room. It made me wistful and sad. It was from a genius and gracious man, Harvey Pekar. We had dinner a couple years ago. (He had onion rings, I had veggie nachos—neither of us eat meat in restaurants.) He talked jazz. I talked bow hunting. Then we discussed Russian authors. The next day Mr. Pekar walked into my office and handed me this exact note:
Here’s what I think it says, though maybe you could help. I couldn’t find some of these Russians, or figure out what exactly to look for, but possibly I just couldn’t decipher Mr. Pekar’s handwriting. Any help would be appreciated. (I found Andrey Bely and Khlebnikov–I mean the others.) I respect Mr. Pekar’s opinion, and following up on these authors would help us all who love Russian lit.
Sean, If you intend to pursue work, Belyo, check out Petersburgh or St. Petersburgh (don’t get the old translation) and The Silver Dove, which are considered by many his best. More daring are Kotekhetaev and his eary early short stories (1900).
Here are some other Russian writers: zamyotin (“We”), Ivanov, Olyesla or Olesha, Pilnyok, Ilb and Petrov (a team). And the poets Khlenikov.
Good to meet you
Harvey
* Update: just figured out IlF and Petrov.
Tags: Found Art, Harvey Pekar RIP, Humbled I am
I don’t know, but Petersburg is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. Beautifully constructed.
Yevgeny Zamyatin. We is a dystopian novel from turn of the 20th century I think, lots of different translations.
Olesha is pronounced Ole-yesha, which is why he spelled it those two ways based on pronunciation. He wrote this beautiful novel, Envy, which is considered the 20th Century’s Notes from Underground. His short stories are also wonderful in that Russian transcendentalist way (think all of Tolstoy’s short stories where they end in some insane spiritual orgasm).
Pilnyok is probably Pilnak, that would be my guess at least. But get your hands on Envy! One of my favorite books ever.
Yevgeny Zamyatin. We is a dystopian novel from turn of the 20th century I think, lots of different translations.
Olesha is pronounced Ole-yesha, which is why he spelled it those two ways based on pronunciation. He wrote this beautiful novel, Envy, which is considered the 20th Century’s Notes from Underground. His short stories are also wonderful in that Russian transcendentalist way (think all of Tolstoy’s short stories where they end in some insane spiritual orgasm).
Pilnyok is probably Pilnak, that would be my guess at least. But get your hands on Envy! One of my favorite books ever.
Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ivanov, Boris Pilnyak, Yury Olesha. Hope this helps.
It do. about to order some books.
Looks like insertion marks around Belyo, making it “If you intend to pursue Beylo works.” But I think your reading is snappier.
Always neat to see an author’s handwriting. Thanks for sharing.
I’m currently reading Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy, which is contemporary, and really enjoying it. Seems like something you might be into.
Have a look, in the last paragraph, at the “h” in “some other Russians” and the “l”s – after the initial “O”s – in (your) “Olyesla, or Olesha”. I think there’s a tiny bump at the right-side base of what you transcribe as the second “l” in “Olyesla”, and that Pekar wrote “Olyesha, or Olesha”.
I also think he wrote, accurately, “Zamyatin” and “Pilnyak’.
(I have worse handwriting than Pekar does here; the principle of scholarly transcription, when (stand-alone) vision and sense (and, in self-cases, memory) fail, is comparison with uncontroversial text.)
i liked z’s We
Damn, you people are good. That is an insertion mark. OK. Well, I’m going to try to knock all these off this summer, and Blake’s suggestion.
I don’t think Pekar wrote “Belyo“, but rather “Belys“, and I wonder if he didn’t try to scratch an apostrophe above (with the intention to sever) the connection between “y” and “s”.
Do you have an opinion on Yevtushenko or Gorky?
http://tld30.com/?UQHAvj
We is great, Sean. Here: http://www.amazon.com/We-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/0380633132. Also, I second Blake–check out Sorokin’s wonderful work. I love that Harvey Pekar was a fan of Russian writers. That’s so warm and great.
Bought it and all these mentioned an hour ago! A good summer with the Russians.
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Andrei Bely’s Petersburg. An early 20th century symbolist novel. The best translation is by Robert Maguire and John Malmstad.
Velimir Khlebnikov is a futurist poet. If you check him out, be sure to read Mayakovsky as well.
Andrei Bely’s Petersburg. An early 20th century symbolist novel. The best translation is by Robert Maguire and John Malmstad.
Velimir Khlebnikov is a futurist poet. If you check him out, be sure to read Mayakovsky as well.
http://tld30.com/?UQHAvj
_The Twelve Chairs_ by Ilf & Petrov is probably the funniest book I’ve ever read.
alturl.com/6onk8
I used to work at a hospital as a medical librarian, and Harvey phoned me several times from the VA where he worked to chat books and literature, and life in general, but mostly literature. I edited a literary magazine and sent one to Harvey to see if he’d be interested in submitting. He phoned to tell me that all his work had to go to publications that paid contributors — mine didn’t — but he liked my mag and thought it had good material. He was impressed that Bukowski could send poems to my magazine, essentially giving his work away for free. I asked if I could reprint a particular comic I’d read in an issue of AMERICAN SPLENDOR. He said, sure, no problem. Later he sent me a letter, written in pencil, that went into his difficulties with cancer, and other things I can’t quite recall. I received another letter from Harvey, plus a jazz review. I published the jazz review even though it wasn’t a very interesting piece of critical writing. I just liked Harvey so much, though we’d never met face to face, that I couldn’t reject what he took the time to send me. I knew a little about his life, how chaotic it was (at times), how he worried about all manner of things. It seemed the better decision, to publish it no matter what its quality. Someone once said about Harvey that he might not have been a great artist but he had the soul of a great artist. And for that we could love him, and his work which was human, honest, admirably so.
damn
http://tld30.com/?UQHAvj
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The Gorky autobiography/trilogy is amazing (easily three of the best books ever written). Stay away from the fiction. Also check out his Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev. It’s freaking beautiful and so simple. He goes on and on about Tolstoy’s hands.
I’ve read a tiny bit of Yevtushenko (prefer Mayakovsky and Ahkmatova). I know Vonnegut’s son, Mark, fought Yevtushenko once. Mark Vonnegut was on vacation and didn’t know who Yevtushenko was..
http://tld30.com/?UQHAvj
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The poet is Velimir Khlebnikov. He’s amazing. Lived 1885-1922. I particularly like his ‘Invocation of Laughter’:
“O, laugh, laughers!
O, laugh out, laughers!
You who laugh with laughs, you who laugh it up laughishly
O, laugh out laugheringly
O, belaughable laughterhood – the laughter of laughering laughers!
O, unlaugh it outlaughingly, belaughering laughists!
Laughily, laughily,
Uplaugh, enlaugh, laughlings, laughlings
Laughlets, laughlets.
O, laugh, laughers!
O, laugh out, laughers!”
http://tld30.com/?UQHAvj
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http://tld30.com/?UQHAvj
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Oh, Khlebnikov is an Universalgenie. He was one of the everlasting futurists – in its bright, Russian meaning (not like warophile Marinetti)
http://mariasebastian.bandcamp.com/track/un-is-the-loneliest-prefix-for-harvey-pekar-comic-legend
I wrote a song for Harvey called “Un is the Loneliest Prefix.” It’s free to listen to at the link above. If you’re a fan, you’ll chuckle. :) RIP Harvey!