GIPPIUS ZINAIDA (1869-1945), AUTOGRAPH Quatrain entitled ‘Sestry’ [Sisters]: manuscript. No place, no date.

1 page. 27x20.1 cm. Purple ink, number “IV” in the upper margin. In good condition. Folding marks. ‘Ty zhizni vse prostil: igru, Obidu, bol’ i dazhe skuchnost’. A temnookuiu eia Sestry? A strannuiu ikh nerazluchnost’?...’ [‘You have forgiven life for all: the game, The hurt, the pain, and even boredom. But her dark-eyed Sister? And their strange inseparableness?...’] This poem, entitled “Two Sisters,” was published in 1925. Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius (1869-1945) was a Russian poet, writer, playwright, and literary critic, one of the prominent representatives of the Silver Age. Gippius, who formed one of the most original and creatively productive marital unions in the history of literature with D.S. Merezhkovsky, is considered the ideologist of Russian symbolism. In exile, the Merezhkovskys became devotees of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. They did not belong to any parish of the Russian Church and, according to the memoirs of N.A. Teffi, attended Catholic services.