From Dr Konstantin Bazarov Sir: What on earth does 'Book-'
Pi buyer' mean by calling the: forthcoming George Feifer/David Burg biography of Solzhenitsyn : " exceptionally well-researched " (August 5). The 'research' in , question has consisted of Feifer, an American who has never met Solz,1: henitsyn, snooping around Moscow: picking up bits of idle gossip. The quality of this may be judged by the Feifer/Burg article r ublished in the Sunday Times on October 11, 1970, which quotes " somc of (Solzhenitsyn's) most intimate friends" as saying "he no longer feels that life abroad would be intolerable. He will go to Stockholm, say there friends, even if this means the heavy sacrifice of parting with Russia." This statement has of course proved to be absclutely untrue. But it also displays an incredible ignorance of Solzhenitsyn's character, of what his campaign for creative freedom has been about, and of the nature of his work and of its deep roots in the history and experience of his native land.
That the Sunday Times should choose at the time to publish such vicious and malevolent rubbish is deplorable enough. But 'gentlemanly ' is hardly the word to describe the behaviour of a publisher who chooses to issue a booklength extension of it two years later ' Bookbuyer ' claims that Hodder and Stoughton have been scrupulous in taking expert advice. This is quite impossible, for the simple reason that there are no Solzhenitsyn ' experts,' in this or in any other country. Much of his work is still unavailable, and he himself is an intensely reticent man who has not merely expressed his opposition to biographies in general, as ' Bookbuyer ' hints, but has through his representative Dr Heeb specifically opposed the Feifer/Burg biography in particular.
The Lenten letter to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch which was published in the Sunday Telegraph was by, not about, Solzhenitsyn. Whether it was "very provocative" or not, it should hardly be necessary to point out that for Solzhenitsyn to speak for himself is one thing, whereas to have George Feifer speaking for him, against his expressly stated wishes, is quite another.
Konstantin Bazarov 117 Reidhaven Road, London SE18
Previous page
