Boris PASTERNAK, his Italian publisher and "Doctor Zhivago".

Boris PASTERNAK (1890-1960)

Autograph letter signed to Giannalisa Feltrinelli.

One page in quarto. Autograph envelope, stamped and postmarked.

[Moscow] May 29, 1959.

Rare letter from the Nobel Prize winner for literature, author of the novel Doctor Zhivago , writing his gratitude to the mother of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the courageous publisher of said work.

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"Dear Madam, I hasten to express my gratitude for the joy your lively letter gave me, as well as to convey my boundless esteem. Your permission to allow me to dream of a future meeting with you is a true honor, but I will not be granted this favor; I do not share your hope. I am cutting this letter short so as not to make it heavy for the post and so that it reaches you as soon as possible. Please convey my profound gratitude to your son. Respectfully yours, B. Pasternak. "

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Although he began writing Doctor Zhivago as early as 1910, Pasternak did not complete his masterpiece until 1955. The following year, he submitted his manuscript to the Soviet newspaper Novi Mir, which firmly rejected it in view of the anti-Soviet positions developed by the author.

At the instigation of the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the manuscript was smuggled into Milan and published in 1957 by his publishing house. During the height of the Cold War, the CIA facilitated the copying, translation, and distribution of Pasternak's novel in Europe.

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Russian writer on October 23, 1958. Threatened by the Soviet government, Pasternak refused to travel to Sweden to receive his prize. He died two years later, on May 30, 1960, in abject poverty.

Twenty-five years after his death, Doctor Zhivago , a literary masterpiece of the 20th century, was published in the Soviet Union in 1985, thanks to perestroika and the Soviet openness initiated by Gorbachev.