‘What is created to last for centuries cannot succeed without a draft'. Boris Zakhoder's desk

Abstract

The essay by E. Konstantinova draws on memories of her interview with Boris Zakhoder from long ago, as well as a meeting with his widow Galina Zakhoder, who introduced her to the writer's house in Komarovka, his favourite belongings and drafts. The main ‘hero' of her essay is Zakhoder's desk, to this day inhabited and surrounded by recognizable characters of his poems for children. It was at this desk that Boris Zakhoder created the Russian retellings of the classical English stories Mary Poppins and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and polished the draft of Peter Pan, started somewhat earlier. In 1996, it was at this desk that, at the age of 87, he was reading proofs of his first collection of poems for adults, Almost Posthumous [Pochti posmertnoe]. He was preparing a collection entitled Zakhodare [Zakhoderzosti] (published by Vek 2 in 1997), where he put together all that was ‘especially dear to him and would be great to finally see published in a book.' Konstantinova's essay is a vivid reminder about the writer who was the first to help characters of English children's books learn to speak Russian.