Derrick Leon’s Tolstoy: His Life and Work

Pg. 180 of David Markson’s copy of Tolstoy: His Life and Work by Derrick Leon:

     On which Markson underlined Chekhov’s name, and then also a quote by him re: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina:
     “You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem, and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist.”
    (He also places many lines in the margin next to this quote.)

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The quote continues in the scan above, though Markson doesn’t continue to underline:
“In Anna Karenina and Eugene Onegin not a single problem is solved, but they satisfy you completely because all the problems in them are stated correctly.”

     Though Chekhov praised Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, the praise was not always returned by Tolstoy, as Markson clearly shows in Vanishing Point (on pg. 5):
     “Tolstoy, to Chekhov:
     You know I can’t stand Shakespeare’s plays, but yours are worse.”

There are other mentions of Tolstoy and Chekhov in Markson…

     “Finding oneself momentarily startled by a reference in Gorky’s diaries to Tolstoy chatting with Chekhov.
     On the telephone.”
     – The Last Novel, pg. 74.

     “The awareness of not having accomplished anything, and not expecting to accomplish anything in the future, is not so terrible because Tolstoy makes up for all of us.
     Concluded Chekhov.”
     – The Last Novel, pg. 132.

     “I am not an orphan on the earth, so long as this man lives on it.
     Said Gorky re Tolstoy.”
     – The Last Novel, pg. 8.

Yes, Chekhov was quite enamored with Tolstoy, and as it says in the above scan, he wished he had written Anna Karenina.

     And, indeed, Anna Karenina remains one of the novels still considered a “best” novel by many contemporary critics.
     It remains canonical.
     Indeed, it remains.

But what if it did not?
What if it did not remain?

“If there were no more copies accessible anywhere of Anna Karenina, in other words, would its title still be Anna Karenina?”
– Wittgenstein’s Mistress, pg. 93.

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The page before the title page and the title page of David Markson’s copy of Tolstoy: His Life and Work by Derrick Leon:

On which Markson, underneath a portrait of Tolstoy, wrote the number 23 with a circle around it (the age of Tolstoy at the time of the portrait).

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“Tolstoy kept a portrait of Dickens on the wall in his study.”
– David Markson, Vanishing Point, pg. 28.

Wonder what age Dickens was in the portrait Tolstoy hung in his study?

“Tolstoy, as a student, wore a medallion portrait of [Rousseau] instead of his Orthodox cross.”
– David Markson, This Is Not A Novel, pg. 32.

Wonder what age Rousseau was in the portrait Tolstoy wore round his neck?

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Pgs. 192 and 193 of David Markson’s copy of Tolstoy: His Life and Work by Derrick Leon:

On which David Markson underlined much of the following passage in red ink:
“And before the end of the same year, when Dostoevsky, after his brief hour of triumph, lay dead, Tolstoy once more wrote of him to Strakhov (who was to be his biographer): ‘I only wish I could express all I feel about Dostoevsky. Though I never saw him, or had any personal communication with him, now that he is dead I realize that he was nearer, dearer and more important to me than anyone else.’”

Markson also placed two red vertical lines in the margin next to the paragraph containing the above passage.

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This sentiment of Tolstoy’s re: Dostoevsky pops up in the first novel of Markson’s Notecard Quartet.

     On pg. 101 of Reader’s Block:
     “Though I never saw him, or had any personal communication with him, now that he is suddenly dead I realize that he was nearer, dearer and more important to me than anyone else.
     Said Tolstoy of Dostoievsky.”

Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were near and dear to Markson. They both appear often in his Notecard Quartet. And they both also unsurprisingly have stories in the Markson-edited collection of Russian literature Women and Vodka (later published as Great Tales of Old Russia).

     As Françoise Palleau-Papin pointed out:
     “Russian literature mattered a lot to Markson, even if he minimized the importance of his Russian-Jewish family background.”
     – This Is Not A Tragedy, pg. xxviii.

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