Volume 30, Number 20 · December 22, 1983
The Upper Depths
By John Bayley
Writers in Russia: 1917-1978
by Max Hayward, edited with an introduction by Patricia Blake, preface by Leonard Schapiro
A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 340 pp., $22.95
Max Hayward was the most distinguished linguistic scholar of his generation and one of the most remarkable personalities in the field of Russian studies. His death in 1979 when he was still in his early fifties was a sad blow not only to scholarship but to the academic equivalent of Dr. Johnson's 'gaiety of nations.' His power over many languages was as lordly as his feeling for them was sensitive, humorous, and discerning. In 1956, at the time of the Hungarian uprising, he mastered the language in a month and spoke it fluently enough to be on terms of intimacy and friendship with student refugees to whom he gave official and invaluable advice and help. He was at home in all the Slavic languages, but his knowledge of Russian, in all its rich and succulent colloquial density, was encyclopedic, and his love for it profound, whether as literature or as spoken in the street. Indeed there is nothing impertinent or hyperbolical in the claim made by his friend and editor, Patricia Blake, that 'Max acted as the custodian of Russian literature in the West until such time as it could be restored to Russia.'
Review, 3383 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |