Frankly, one of the worst experiences from publishing my biography of George Calderon has been the appalling response to the 71 complimentary and review copies that I sent out. I was encouraged, for instance, by specific journalists at The Times, TLS, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times to send them review copies, but have not had so much as a thank you from them, let alone a review. There are also half a dozen ‘friends’ who have not thanked me and in at least one case have put their inscribed copy on ABEbooks! For the benefit of other independent publishers, I’ll post about this excruciating phenomenon at a future date. Suffice it to say, I shall never make the mistake again…
But one of the best experiences has been making, or renewing, the acquaintance of three Russianists of more or less my own generation who have independently and utterly selflessly supported the project in a multiplicity of ways. I myself had been out of the world of Russianists for over twenty-five years; so I am really moved that they spontaneously stepped forward to help me. They are Michael Pursglove, John Dewey, and Harvey Pitcher. Each of them has a fantastically fertile career behind him, and is still producing translations and articles today. Over the next month, then, I shall be featuring them and their work in three individual posts.
These senior British Russianist-translators are the true heirs of Edwardians George Calderon, Constance Garnett, and Aylmer Maude.
SOME RESPONSES TO GEORGE CALDERON: EDWARDIAN GENIUS
‘The book is written with great assurance and the reader always feels in safe hands. I liked the idea of it being a story and I read it the same way I would read a novel.’ Harvey Pitcher, writer
‘It is a masterly synthesis of your own approach with scholarship and very judicious discussion of the evidence.’ Emeritus Professor Catherine Andreyev, historian
‘A monumental scholarly masterpiece that gives real insight into how the Edwardians viewed the world.’ Arch Tait, Translator of Natalya Rzhevskaya’s Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter
‘This comprehensive, meticulously researched and highly readable biography, which the author describes as a “story” rather than an academic biography…’ Michael Pursglove, East-West Review
‘It is bound to remain the definitive account.’ Laurence Senelick, Fletcher Professor of Drama, Tufts University
‘Presents the Edwardian age, and Calderon in particular, as new and forward-looking.‘ Emeritus Professor Michael Alexander, in Trinity College, Oxford, Report 2017-18
A review by DAMIAN GRANT appears in the comments to Calderonia’s 7 September post.
A review by JOHN DEWEY appears on Amazon UK.
Related
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
George Calderon, 1912
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Captain of the 11
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
George Calderon c.1901
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Inestimable Russianists: A Coming Series of Posts
Frankly, one of the worst experiences from publishing my biography of George Calderon has been the appalling response to the 71 complimentary and review copies that I sent out. I was encouraged, for instance, by specific journalists at The Times, TLS, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times to send them review copies, but have not had so much as a thank you from them, let alone a review. There are also half a dozen ‘friends’ who have not thanked me and in at least one case have put their inscribed copy on ABEbooks! For the benefit of other independent publishers, I’ll post about this excruciating phenomenon at a future date. Suffice it to say, I shall never make the mistake again…
But one of the best experiences has been making, or renewing, the acquaintance of three Russianists of more or less my own generation who have independently and utterly selflessly supported the project in a multiplicity of ways. I myself had been out of the world of Russianists for over twenty-five years; so I am really moved that they spontaneously stepped forward to help me. They are Michael Pursglove, John Dewey, and Harvey Pitcher. Each of them has a fantastically fertile career behind him, and is still producing translations and articles today. Over the next month, then, I shall be featuring them and their work in three individual posts.
These senior British Russianist-translators are the true heirs of Edwardians George Calderon, Constance Garnett, and Aylmer Maude.
SOME RESPONSES TO GEORGE CALDERON: EDWARDIAN GENIUS
‘The book is written with great assurance and the reader always feels in safe hands. I liked the idea of it being a story and I read it the same way I would read a novel.’ Harvey Pitcher, writer
‘It is a masterly synthesis of your own approach with scholarship and very judicious discussion of the evidence.’ Emeritus Professor Catherine Andreyev, historian
‘A monumental scholarly masterpiece that gives real insight into how the Edwardians viewed the world.’ Arch Tait, Translator of Natalya Rzhevskaya’s Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter
‘This comprehensive, meticulously researched and highly readable biography, which the author describes as a “story” rather than an academic biography…’ Michael Pursglove, East-West Review
‘It is bound to remain the definitive account.’ Laurence Senelick, Fletcher Professor of Drama, Tufts University
‘Presents the Edwardian age, and Calderon in particular, as new and forward-looking.‘ Emeritus Professor Michael Alexander, in Trinity College, Oxford, Report 2017-18
A review by DAMIAN GRANT appears in the comments to Calderonia’s 7 September post.
A review by JOHN DEWEY appears on Amazon UK.
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