ON THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PUBLICATIONS OF BORYS GRINCHENKO’S POEMS

Abstract

For the first time, Borys Grinchenko’s poems were published in the Galician journal “Svit” (1881–1882) and the almanac “Rada” (1883, 1884). Some of them became programmatic and were therefore perceived as the works of a mature author. However, the poet expressed dissatisfaction with his first attempts at poetry. Besides, the poems underwent editorial interventions in these publications. Since there is no detailed biography of Borys Grinchenko, there is a need to reconstruct the creative history of these poems and conduct textological observations. For this, one should refer to the personal correspondence of Borys Grinchenko with Ivan Levytskyi (Nechuy), Mykhailo Starytskyi, Ivan Zozulya and other participants of the Ukrainian cultural movement of that time. Materials from the collections of the Institute of Manuscripts of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine and corresponding printed materials were used for the textological comparison. On the basis of the conducted reconstruction, it is found that Borys Grinchenko did not have significant authorial control over the preparation of the first publications of his poems. He actually had no contact with the publishers of the Galician journal “Svit”, and had only fragmentary communication with the editors of the almanac “Rada”. Mykhailo Starytskyi’s active intervention in the texts of the works gave rise to a misunderstanding between him and the author. In addition, such actions of the initiator of the “Rada” almanac led to the existence of several editions of Borys Grinchenko’s individual poems, which differ significantly. At the same time, the history of Borys Grinchenko’s pseudonyms is connected with the first publications of poems. The article proposes an assumption about their sources and significance. The reconstructed relationship between Borys Grinchenko and leading figures of Ukrainian culture is important for understanding the history of subsequent publications of his works and individual sources of literary and critical polemics of the 1890s. The materials and observations proposed in the article will be included in the scientific biography of Borys Grinchenko, which is being prepared by specialists of the Department of Ukrainian Literature, Comparative Studies and Grinchenko Studies of Grinchenko University.