This collection of literary portraits forms a gallery of life-like representations of some remarkable Russian authors. Here we have Tolstoi— “superhumanly wise,” Chekhov— “sagely modest,” Korolenko—“ calm and of an extraordinary simplicity,” Kotsubinsky—”at home In the Ideal world of beauty and good,” Garin- Mikhailovsky—”gifted, inexhaustibly cheerful,” Prishvln, who wrote about “the Earth, our Great Mother. Gorky’s unfailing interest In creative personalities, his keen observation, his ability to capture every characteristic word, gesture, intonation, his profound knowledge of the times producing these personalities, enabled him to penetrate the mysteries of such complex and sell-contradictory individuals as Tolstoi, Chekhov, Korolenko, and many others.
And in his contacts with his great contemporaries new and wonderful features of the author of these portraits — Alexei Maximovich Gorky — are unconsciously displayed.

Translated from the Russian By Ivy Litvinov

You can get the book here and here.

CONTENTS

LEV TOLSTOI 9
SOPHIA TOLSTAYA 103
ANTON CHEKHOV 134
VLADIMIR KOROLENKO AND HIS TIMES 169
VLADIMIR KOROLENKO 220
MIKHAIL KOTSUBINSKY 257
NIKOLAI GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY 271
MIKHAIL PRISHVIN 300