94 - Jurgis Kasimirovich BALTRUCHAITIS (1873–1944)

Jurgis Kasimirovich BALTRUCHAITIS (1873–1944) Set of 3 unfinished Russian-language art prints addressed to Konstantin Dmitrievich BALMONT, alias Don (1867–1942): -One dated August 19, 1906: “My dear Don, I haven’t written for a few days because I was moving to the city, with all the commotion that entails. There was yet another whole story with the Muscovites. Whether I had lost the habit of living with them, of understanding them, or whether they had lost it, I cannot say—they do everything slowly and slow everything down, nitpicking and apologizing over and over again… But now I’m in my own little corner, and I don’t care about anything else… (...) I’d like to think and talk only about you… (though I’ll write about your latest poems only in my next letter)... I envy your isolation (...)". —A letter dated June 8, 1907, regarding the publication of his poem and possible criticism. “Your *Bird* has been published. As soon as I read it, I’ll let you know my impressions and my opinion of the work as a whole. Of course, you’ll have to hear more than one biased, prejudiced—and unfair—opinion. Such are the times now in our ‘new’ criticism. But you shouldn’t worry about that. Let’s wait and see how far the others will go…” -Another in which he apologizes that “the translation was particularly poor. Much of it here is not my fault… / You’re obviously very angry with me. You must even be cursing me. I’d like to share something with you about myself… Throughout that diabolical fall, I translated almost perfectly (…)” MC Source -Jurgis Kasimirovich Baltruchaïtis (1873–1944), Lithuanian diplomat and poet. -Their son, Jurgis Jurgissovich Baltruchaïtis (1903–1988), historian. -His wife, Hélène Baltruchaïtis (1908–2004), née Castel-Focillon, daughter of Henri Focillon (1881–1943). -Then through descendants.