KONSTANTIN BALMONT (1867-1942), AUTOGRAPH

Lot 316
2 8003 200
Two poems under the General title «Native» (1.»To give you a lot of»; «Fields forgotten»). Tiais, October 13-17, 1936. Vecher (Evening). Typewriting, 1 p. 27x21 cm. Minor author’s edits in the text. The poet’s handwritten signature: «K. Balmont» at the end. From August 1932 to may 1935, K.D. Balmont and his wife Elena Konstantinovna Balmont (Tsvetkovskaya) lived in Clamart near Paris, in poverty. The situation was complicated by the poet’s nervous breakdown, which turned into a serious mental illness. V.F. Zeeler, General Secretary of the Union of Russian writers and journalists, was one of the few who helped the poet. In April 1936 The Union of Russian writers and journalists organized a charity evening in Paris «Writers To the Poet» on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the creative activity of K. D. Balmont. The event was organized by famous figures of Russian culture: I. A. Bunin, B. K. Zaitsev, A. N. Benois, S. V. Rakhmaninov, M.A. Aldanov, I. S. Shmelev and others. With the funds raised, K. D. Balmont was placed in a good sanatorium in Tiais near Paris. In August 1936, E. K. Balmont rented a boarding house there, in Tiais, where they stayed until December 1936. The poems from this period were included in the last lifetime collection of the poet «Light service», which was published in Harbin in 1937 with a circulation of 300 copies. Today, this publication is a bibliographic rarity. Until recent times, only eight of the collection’s fifty poems were published in various publications in Russia. Nevertheless, the book is an important milestone in the lyrics of K. D. Balmont - it reflected the last creative rise of the poet. Provenance: Archive of the Union of Russian writers and journalists in Paris