You appeared before me, the reader, as a great Russian artist, a master of word mysteries, a landscape painter and an insightful man who reads people like a book.

I did not know what Alexey Maksimovich [Maxim Gorky] thought of me as a writer. But once (it was already in 1912) I received a letter from Nedolin, a publicist I knew (also known as Sergey Poperek, who used to publish the “Lebed” magazine in Moscow), which read, ‘28.9.12 Dear Sergey Nikolayevich! I have just received a letter from Gorky, whom I recently consulted with about some affair, and by the way, I told him about the meetings and conversations you and I had. Here are the lines from his letter concerning you: ‘Make no mistake about Tsensky: he is a great writer; the most prominent, interesting and reliable person in all modern literature ˂…˃ I read his works with enormous pleasure and go over everything he writes. Please convey to him my deepest and heartfelt feelings of respect.‘

I am overjoyed, excited — that is a great book you have written, Sergey Nikolayevich, a great one indeed! It pulls at your heartstrings and excites the mind, like all good, truly Russian things….