Pyotr Pertsov

Pyotr Petrovich Pertsov
Pertsov in 1890s
Born	Пётр Петрович Перцов (1868-06-16)June 16, 1868 Kazan, Russian Empire
Died	May 19, 1947(1947-05-19) (aged 78) Moscow, USSR
Occupation	poet, literary critic, publisher, editor, memoirist
Years active	1880s – 1930s

Pyotr Petrovich Pertsov (Пётр Петрович Перцов, June 16, 1868, Kazan, Russian Empire, — May 19, 1947, Moscow, USSR) was a Russian poet, publisher, editor, literary critic, journalist and memoirist associated with the Russian Symbolist movement.^[1][2]

Biography

Pyotr Petrovich Pertsov was born in Kazan, a son of Pyotr Petrovich, the youngest of the four Pertsov brothers. His uncles Vladimir, Konstantin and Erast were well-known journalists; the latter, a poet, in 1831-1832 was closely linked to Alexander Pushkin. Pyotr Pertsov studied in the 2nd Kazan Gymnasium. In 1887 he enrolled into the Kazan University's law faculty which he graduated in 1992.^[2]

In 1890 Pertsov published his first poems in Saint Petersburg newspapers Nedelya (Week) and Novosti (News) to positive reviews from, among others, Afanasy Fet. In 1892 he became friends with Nikolai Mikhaylovsky and joined the staff of Russkoye Bogatstvo, at this particular point a liberal narodnik's magazine, as a head of the bibliography department. The infatuation with narodnichestvo, though, was short-lived and a year later Pertsov quit. In 1894, engaged by his new friends, Valery Bryusov, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Fyodor Sologub, he started to contribute to Severny Vestnik, the Russian Symbolist movement's early tribune.^[3]

In 1895 Pertsov compiled and published the Young Poetry (Молодая поэзия) compilation, featuring the works by Balmont, Bryusov, Minsky, Merezhkovsky, which was followed by his own set of essays The Philosophical Trends of the Russian Poetry. He inspired Merezhkovsky to release his critical works compilation (The Eternal Companions. Portraits from the World Literature, 1897), published the first several books by Vasily Rozanov and introduced the latter to the Symbolist circle.^[3]

In 1898 Severny Vestnik closed and in 1902 Gippius and Merezkovsky invited Pertsov, now a popular literary entrepreneur, to join their own magazine, Novy Put as an editor/publisher. This entailed a series of disagreements, and in 1904 Dmitry Filosofov succeeded Pertsov as the formal head of this publication. In 1906 Pertsov (whose works were published regularly by Mir Iskusstva, among other magazines) became the editor of newspaper Slovo’s literary supplement. In the early 1910s he started to actively contribute to Alexey Suvorin-led Novoye Vremya.^[2]

1917-1947

After the 1917 Revolution Pertsov resided in the Kostroma region, lectured in the Kostroma University, worked in Narkompros' museums department. In 1927 the collection The Correspondence of V.Y.Bryusov and P.P.Pertsov came out, featuring the first 32 (of 173) Bryusov's letters from Pertsov's archive. He published several museum guide-books and the Literary Memoirs. 1890-1902 (Academia, 1934), all the while working on his magnum opus The Basics of the Cosmonomy which remained unfinished. Neither occasional publications, nor lecturing brought Pertsov much money; he received no pension and lived in poverty. Only in 1942 so as to alleviate his dire state, friends managed to get him accepted into the Soviet Union of Writers.^[1]

Pyotr Petrovich Pertsov died on May 19, 1947. He was buried at the Alekseevskoye Cemetery in Moscow. The obituary signed by Shchepkina-Kupernik and Shyusev among others, was sent to Literaturnaya Gazeta, which refused to publish it.^[3]

External links

• Works by Pyotr Pertsov in the Mashkov Library

References