The bank receipt for a fee was signed on July 4, 1950 — the French publishing house ‘Calmann-Lévy’ paid Ivan Bunin 40,000 francs for his book ‘Memoires’. The work was published in December of the same year.
The deal was arranged by Michael Hoffman, who worked as a literary agent for Bunin, Mark Aldanov, and other émigré writers. As a true professional, he developed great connections not only in France, but also in the US and England. Bunin’s letters to Hoffmann reveal interesting details about the publication of his books in French, English, and German.
For the publication of “Memoires” in French, the writer’s agent offered the original text to publishers ‘Gallimard’ and ‘Plon’. But in the end, Bunin signed a contract with ‘Calmann-Lévy’. This publishing house was founded by German-born Calmann Lévy, who gained fame because he and his brothers issued theatrical periodicals in Paris. In the 20th century, his enterprise turned into the largest publishing house which mainly printed academic and art history literature; it was also popular among Russian émigrés.
However, Bunin did not like the French version of the ‘Memoires’. The publisher removed several chapters from the book: ‘His Highness’, " The Semenov and Bunin Families’, “Ertel”, “Mayakovsky, ” and “Hegel, tailcoat, snowstorm”. In addition, Bunin was displeased with the order of the texts: the editors themselves rearranged the chapters. The writer rightly believed that the structure of the book should solely depend on the author’s vision, and publishers should not change it. In one of his letters, he asked Michael Hoffman to ensure that the layout of the English and American versions will be the same as the Russian one, so that they would not produce the same ‘mess’ that Calmann-Lévy dared to make.
Unfortunately, there are very few mentions about the book’s publication in Bunin’s letters from 1949-1951. The only exception was a letter to his friend Mark Aldanov dated September 2, 1951. In the letter Bunin wrote that he was dissatisfied with the financial side of cooperation with the ‘Vozrozhdenie’ (Renaissance) Publishing House, which published the book in Russian:
The deal was arranged by Michael Hoffman, who worked as a literary agent for Bunin, Mark Aldanov, and other émigré writers. As a true professional, he developed great connections not only in France, but also in the US and England. Bunin’s letters to Hoffmann reveal interesting details about the publication of his books in French, English, and German.
For the publication of “Memoires” in French, the writer’s agent offered the original text to publishers ‘Gallimard’ and ‘Plon’. But in the end, Bunin signed a contract with ‘Calmann-Lévy’. This publishing house was founded by German-born Calmann Lévy, who gained fame because he and his brothers issued theatrical periodicals in Paris. In the 20th century, his enterprise turned into the largest publishing house which mainly printed academic and art history literature; it was also popular among Russian émigrés.
However, Bunin did not like the French version of the ‘Memoires’. The publisher removed several chapters from the book: ‘His Highness’, " The Semenov and Bunin Families’, “Ertel”, “Mayakovsky, ” and “Hegel, tailcoat, snowstorm”. In addition, Bunin was displeased with the order of the texts: the editors themselves rearranged the chapters. The writer rightly believed that the structure of the book should solely depend on the author’s vision, and publishers should not change it. In one of his letters, he asked Michael Hoffman to ensure that the layout of the English and American versions will be the same as the Russian one, so that they would not produce the same ‘mess’ that Calmann-Lévy dared to make.
Unfortunately, there are very few mentions about the book’s publication in Bunin’s letters from 1949-1951. The only exception was a letter to his friend Mark Aldanov dated September 2, 1951. In the letter Bunin wrote that he was dissatisfied with the financial side of cooperation with the ‘Vozrozhdenie’ (Renaissance) Publishing House, which published the book in Russian:
