Maxim Gorki | Page 6

to the famous Vladimir
Korolenko, who was then living in Nijni Novgorod, and editing the
paper, Russkoe Bogatstvo. Korolenko was much interested in Gorki,
but was unable at that time to offer the young writer any remunerative
work. Gorki was obliged to eke out his living by contributing to small
provincial papers. He shared the same fate as so many of his fellow
journalists. None of the editors offered any sort of honorarium, but
simply returned his contributions, when, as happened with one of the
Odessa journals, he asked three kopecks a line from it. This same paper,
however, commissioned him to write a report of the World's Fair at
Nijni Novgorod in the year 1896.
Gorki gladly agreed, and his reports excited general attention. But they
were shockingly remunerated, and he was forced to live under such
wretched conditions that his lungs became affected.
Korolenko now exerted himself seriously on Gorki's behalf. And the

advocacy of a power in the literary world effected what all his highly
characteristic achievements had not accomplished for him. It made him
known and desirable. New journals enlisted him as a permanent
colleague on their staff. Henceforward existence was no concern to the
literary vagabond, who on his own showing had had four teachers: the
cook on the Volga steamer, the advocate Lanin, the idler whom he
describes in Kaluschny, and Korolenko.
Seldom is it the case that an author comes to his own as early as Gorki.
This was undoubtedly due to the courageous manner in which he struck
out into the social currents that were agitating his country. And the
rapid impression he made was due as much to the peculiar conditions
of the Russian Empire as to his own talent. There, where there can be
no public expression of schemes for the future, no open desire for
self-development, Art is always the realisation of greater hopes than it
can be where a free path has already been laid down. And it is thus that
men like Gorki can exert an overwhelming influence which is
absolutely inconceivable to other nationalities. It is not merely the
result of their artistic temperament. It derives at least as strongly from
their significance to Humanity, their effect upon culture, their
aggressive energy.
On the other hand, it would be a perversion to ascribe the success of
such individuals to circumstances alone, and to what they say, and the
inflexible virile courage with which they say it. Talent, genius, the why
and wherefore, are all factors. In Russia there are not a few who share
the experiences and insight of Gorki. But they lack means of expression;
they are wanting in executive ability.
Not that many capable men are not also on the scene at present. But
maybe they are not the "whole man," who puts the matter together,
without fear or ruth, as Gorki has done so often.
* * * * * *
[Illustration: A page from Gorki's last work (Transcribed and
forwarded by the author to Hans Ostwald)]

"As an implacable foe to all that is mean and paltry in the aspirations
of Humanity, I demand that every individual who bears a human
countenance shall really be--a MAN!"
"Senseless, pitiful, and repulsive is this our existence, in which the
immoderate, slavish toil of the one-half incessantly enables the other to
satiate itself with bread and with intellectual enjoyments."
From "Man." By Maxim Gorki.
* * * * * *
It is vain for Maximovich Pjeschkov not to term himself Gorki, the
"Bitter One." He opposes a new Kingdom of Heroes in contrast to the
old hero-world, to the great strategists and wholesale butchers.
Bluebeard and Toggenburg, Richard Coeur-de-Lion--what are these
bloody tyrants for us of to-day? It is impossible to resuscitate them as
they were of old. They were,--and have become a form, in which the
exuberant and universal Essence of Life no longer embodies itself.
But . . . we must have our Heroes still; heroes who master their lives
after their own fashion, and who are the conquerors of fate. We cry out
for men who are able to transcend the pettiness of every day, who
despise it, and calmly live beyond it.
And Gorki steps forward with the revelation of the often
misrepresented Destitutes--or the homeless and hearthless--who are
despised, rejected, and abused. And he makes us know them for heroes,
conquerors, adventurers. Not all, indeed, but many of them.
The sketch entitled "Creatures that once were Men," which is in a
measure introductory to the famous "Doss-house" ("Scenes from the
Abysses") is especially illuminating.
Here we have the New Romance. Here is no bygone ideal newly
decked and dressed out, trimmed up with fresh finery. It is the men of
our own time who are described.

Whether other nations will accept such heroes