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TOLSTOY SOCIETY.
Dear Miss Jane Addams,
I hope that in spite of the many years that have passed since you were in Russia you have not altogether lost your interest in Tolstoy, and I am therefore sending you the preliminary proposals of a Tolstoy Society that has been formed (as a result of a couple of lectures recently given in London by his eldest daughter) to promote the celebration of his Centenary. One of the main aims of the Society is to do what we have never yet succeeded in accomplishing, viz., to produce a readable, reliable, and complete edition of Tolstoy's works in English. We have received a publisher's proposal to undertake this, and hope to get the matter settled before long. He ↑The publisher↓ wants short Introductions -- anything up to a couple of thousand words -- to the chief books, and I wondered whether we might ask you to say something on What Then Must We Do?
Mr. Lee Keedick of New York is negotiating with the Countess [Tatiana] Tolstoy ↑(Leo Tolstoy's eldest daughter)↓ to lecture in the States next winter, and she seems inclined to go if she can take her twenty-year-old daughter Tanya with her. The Tolstoys have of course been utterly ruined by the Revolution, and the Countess cannot afford to be out of pocket over the trip. Keedick, I believe, is offering to pay her and her daughter's voyage, and their expenses outside New York, but they would have to provide for themselves while staying in New York. The Countess is a very interesting and [likable] person, [page 2] and her daughter is also very charming, and I thought I would ask ↑[inquire]↓ whether you think there is anybody in New York who would care to put them up during the time they stay there. If there were such an hospitable person, it would probably facilitate the arrangement of the tour, which in its turn would be likely to help the projected Centenary Edition considerably, -- as the Countess is a really good and interesting lecturer.
I know how much you always have on hand, and ↑I↓ do not want to trouble you, but I thought I would just mention the case on the chance of your being able to help in the matter.
↑With very kind remembrances,↓
Yours sincerely,
Aylmer Maude [signed]
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