New-York tribune., 1918-06-30
"Conspirators" Publish
Imagined Life and
E. Letters and Display
His ''Relics" for the
Public to Won
der At
Gospodi Pomi (Lord Have Mercy
st. Petersburg, 1881

Gospodi Pomi (Lord Have Mercy)
st. Petersburg, 1881
Mr.. Cotton has taken pains to fur
nish a note, at once critical and in
formative, to each volume. And DR..
Gustave Simonson Ia pen name Of
Richardson Wright) has compiled
list of references for students of
Russian literature who desire fur
ther to acquaint themselves with the
writings of the great master. The
aid this list gives to the student is
not so great as could be wished, for
not one Of the books on it can be
found to exist through any of the
media available in the New York
Public Library.
How the Hoax
Originated
The original germ of this eiab-
crate hoax was dropped with guile
less innocence into a small group
who were chattering about books in
the Authors Club.
"These very learned men," said
William George Jordan, seemed to
know 80 much about books and
their makers that they had reminded
me Of miser who had stored all
the gold in the world for his own
enjoyment. They knew of rare edi-
tions of Rabelais that were made
priceless by some fly speck imper-
fection on Page 1108, or a volume
of Epictetus dug out Of some Greek
ruin. When I hear a man exultfng
in too much knowledge, 1 feel that
he has robbed me of something that
could enjoy. Into the midst of this
group l hurled that question: What
do you think Of Larrovitch?' They
knew all the great Russian writers,
but they never had heard of Larro-
witch. I had never heard of him N.Y.
self and l meant no more then than
to have little joke with them. But
they were all so keen to learn about
Larrovitch that 1 could not disap-
point them"
Before the evening was over Mr..
Jordan, who in his working time is
seriously engaged in writing on edu-
cational matters, but who, like the
author of "Alice in Wonderland a
professor of mathematics, has a
penchant for fantasia, had built up
a fair history of Larrovitch. He ex-
planned to his deeply engrossed audi
ence that nearly all the great Rus
sian writer's had stolen many pages
from the "Father of Russian Litera-
ture" and that cabal of silence had
kept the outside world in ignorance
about it. s..
THAT isathe reason" Mr.. Jordan
explained to- his hearers, 'that you
will not find the name of Larrovitch
in any book of reference. ~
"I, myself" he told them, "found
two volumes in an obscure library in
Paris, and in the same year in Mu-
Mich. / found what purported to be
the same two volumes in German.
but they were so different from those
in French that I asked an authority
about them. He told me, in con-
fidence, that the translations were
purposely garbled to give color to
the story industriously spread in
Russia that Larrovitch was myth"
The little audience at the Authors
Club, Mr.. Jordan declares, was
greatly edited by his discourse on
Larrovitch. A few, who were listen
ing nearby, saw through the in
vention but thought it too good a
joke to disclose it. Among these
was Richardson Wright, who had
spent about six years in Russia as a
newspaper correspondent. The at
fair became good club joke among
dozen or so of the members, and
might have remained good club
joke were it not that at meeting
in the rooms Of Mr.. Jordan, called
to devise an evenings entertain
ment for the club, MIR. Wright sug-
gested that Mr.. Jordan deliver q
lecture on Larrovitch.
Erudite Audience
Swallowed 1t Whole
The others present, most of those
who have contributed so ably to the
Larrovitch book, fell in with the suc
gestion and elaborated upon it until
it developed into a series of lectures
supplemented by stereopticon views
Of some Of the likely places in the
Larrovitch country and the relics OF
the lamented great man, including q
flower from his grave and the pad
lock Of his cell in Siberia.
Mr.. Jordan declares that the at
tendants at the lectures and exhibit,
for the most part, took the affair
quite as matter Of course, and that
very few among the audience seemed