The translator, theater critic and publisher Lyubov Yakovlevna Gurevich also had a talent for writing. At the age of 13, while still a gymnasium student, she wrote the novel called “Sister”, and at the age of 15 she came up with the idea for a large novel “Losers”, which was completed many years later and published under the title “Highland”.
The writer placed her literary works in the Severny Vestnik (The Northern Messenger) magazine. She was the chief editor and publisher of the magazine from 1891. Its pages were the first to see her stories “Shurochka”, “Assignment”, “A Strange Story”, “Sorrow” and the novel “Highland”, which was featured in eight issues between 1896 and 1897. A separate edition was published in Saint Petersburg in 1897.
The novel “Highland” caused a wave of mixed reviews in the Russian press. Some critics welcomed it, as it reflected the ambiguous fate of the Russian intelligentsia of the late 19th century, while others pointed out the faults in style and composition, as well as vague main characters. The reviews also noted the main character, which was autobiographical.
Gurevich contributed a lot to the popularity of Severny Vestnik by inviting famous Russian writers to publish their works in it. The magazine attracted such renowned authors as Nikolay Leskov, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Fyodor Sologub and Konstantin Balmont. From late 1895 to early 1896, the magazine printed Alexander Ertel’s last novel called “Strukov’s Career”.
Alexander Ertel and Lyubov Gurevich established a friendship. In 1897, Gurevich presented Ertel with the edition of her only novel with a dedicatory inscription:
