Zhivago's Secret Journey: From Typescript to Book

by Paolo Mancosu

Overview

Paolo Mancosu continues an investigation he began in his 2013 book Inside the Zhivago Storm, which the New York Book Review of Books described as "a tour de force of literary detection worthy of a scholarly Sherlock Holmes". In this book Mancosu extends his detective work by reconstructing the network of contacts that helped Pasternak smuggle the typescripts of Doctor Zhivago outside the Soviet Union and following the vicissitudes of the typescripts when they arrived in the West. Mancosu draws on a wealth of firsthand sources to piece together the long-standing mysteries surrounding the many different typescripts that played a role in the publication of Doctor Zhivago, thereby solving the problem of which typescript served as the basis of the first Russian edition: a pirate publication covertly orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He also offers a new perspective, aided by the recently declassified CIA documents, by narrowing the focus as to who might have passed the typescript to the CIA. In the process, Mancosu reveals details of events that were treated as top secret by all those involved, vividly recounting the history of the publication of Pasternak’s epic work with all its human and political ramifications.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817919641
Publisher:	Hoover Institution Press
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Paolo Mancosu is Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Inside the Zhivago Storm: The Editorial Adventures of Pasternak's Masterpiece and Smugglers, Rebels, Pirates: Itineraries in the Publishing History of Doctor Zhivago. He has been a fellow of the Humboldt Stiftung, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the Institut d'Études Avancées in Paris.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xiii

Abbreviations and Archives xvii

1 Early Smugglings 3

2 D'Angelo and Feltrinelli 11

3 The Polish Harbinger 17

4 Berlin, Katkov, and Collins Publishers 27

5 Doctor Zhivago Arrives in Oxford 37

6 The Novel Makes the Rounds 45

7 November 1956: The Hungarian Watershed 55

8 Helene Peltier 61

9 Pasternak's Ruse 67

10 Pasternak, Soca, and Peltier 73

11 Katkov and Peltier 91

12 Gallimard and de Proyart 99

13 Publication in Poland, Italy, France, England, and the United States 113

14 The Mouton Edition of the Russian Text 125

15 The CIA, MI6, and the Origin of the Microfilm Received by the CIA 131

16 A Comparative Analysis of the Typescripts with the Mouton Edition 137

17 The Russian Text and the BBC Broadcasting 153

18 Whodunnit? 161

Documentary Appendix 181

1 Letter from Martin Malia to Isaiah Berlin, April 12, 1956 181

2 George Katkov on Pasternak and Akhmatova, late 1956 184

3 Excerpts from Lydia Pasternak's diaries (September 1956-February 1957) 190

4 Isaiah Berlin to Hamish Hamilton, October 5, 1956 202

5 George Katkov to Boris Pasternak, draft, mid-October 1956, version 1 204

6 George Katkov to Boris Pasternak, draft, mid-October 1956, version 2 208

7 Ilélène Peltier to Franco Venturi, October 26,1956 210

8 George Katkov to Nicholas [at Collins Publishers], November 21, 1956 216

9 Helene Peltier to George Katkov, draft, Decemher 6, 1956 220

10 Marjorie Villiers to Helen Wolff, January 2, 1957 223

11 Hélène Peltier to Boris Pasternak, January 5, 1957 225

12 George Katkov to Hélène Peltier, January 25, 1957 228

13 Hélène Peltier to George Katkov, draft, February 1, 1957 230

14 CIA memo an Doctor Zhivago, January 2, 1958 231

15 George Katkov on the publication history of Doctor Zhivago, January 29, 1958 233

16 Marjorie Villiers to William Collins, March 21, 1958 240

17 George Katkov on his typescript and the BBC broadcast, October/November 1958 242

18 Kurt Wolff on the American translation of Doctor Zhivago, December 19, 1958 244

19 Jerzy Pomianowski to Gustaw Herling Grudzinski, January 3, 1989 248

20 Ziemowit Fedecki to Valerio Riva, September 20, 1992 250

Bibliography 255

About the Author 263

Index 265