I began reading Pasternak with intense interest in 1958 when the publication of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ was conspicuous in the news. I did not, however, read the novel then, but instead discovered Pasternak’s much earlier prose, especially ‘A Safe-Conduct’, with which I instantly felt a kinship: what centrally interested Pasternak was a central interest of mine, too (or did it just become it at that moment?): namely, the entry of poetry into one’s life and the desire to define inspiration.
Over the years I have been greatly helped by Pasternak’s son, Evgeny, and by Evgeny’s wife, Elena. Their encouragement has been invaluable, as has their own devoted and tireless work of preserving, editing and publishing Boris Pasternak’s writings.
Among Pasternak scholars the most important to me have been the immensely knowledgeable and wise Lazar Fleishman, and my friend and fellow-inquirer into Pasternak’s essential ideas, Fiona Björling.
Example of Pasternak’s handwriting
Boris Pasternak. Perepiska s Ol’goi Freidenberg. Pod redaktsiei i s kommentariiami Elliotta Mossmana. [Correspondence with Olga Freudenberg. Edited with commentaries by Elliott Mossman.]
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, New York and London, 1981. Pages 244, 245.
Transliterated
V odnom otnoshenii ia postaraius’ vziat’ sebia v ruki, – v rabote. Ia uzhe govoril tebe, chto nachal pisat’ bol’shoi roman v proze. Sobstvenno, eto pervaia nastoiashchaia moia rabota. Ia v nei khochu dat’ istoricheskii obraz Rossii za poslednee sorokapiatiletie, i v to zhe vremia vsemi storonami svoego siuzheta, tiazhelogo, pechal’nogo i podrobno razrabotannogo, kak, v ideale, u Dikkensa ili Dostoevskogo, – eta veshch’ budet vyrazheniem moikh vzgliadov na iskusstvo, na evangelie, na zhizn’ cheloveka v istorii, i na mnogoe drugoe.
Translated
In one respect I’m going to try to take myself in hand: in my work. I’ve already told you that I have started writing a big novel in prose. Essentially, this is my first real work. In it I want to give a historical image /picture?/ of Russia during the last forty-five years, and at the same time – in all aspects of my subject, difficult [and] grievous as it is and elaborated in detail, ideally as in Dickens or Dostoevsky – this work will be an expression of my views on art, on the Gospels, on the life of man in history, and much else.