Lot 1003: ANDREEV, LEONID NIKOLAEVICH. 1871-1919.- Photograph signed "Leonid Andreev"

Photograph signed "Leonid Andreev" on gray mount, 760 x 550 mm, 1909, gelatin silver print, some spotting and discoloring where print was retouched by photographer. INSCRIBED IN INK on mount to fellow writer Fedor Falkovski, in translation "with kind and complex feeling." L.N. Andreev was a prominent short story writer, novelist, playwight and editor of the Silver Age. He did not shy away from candidly treating sexual taboos such as venereal disease, rape and necrophilia in his stories. Many were offended by his themes, including Countess Tolstoy who protested against such "dirt" in the press. Falkovski and Andreev were neighbors during the summer on the Karelian Isthmus and Falkowski staged the premier of Andreev's play Dni nashei zhizni [Days of Our Lives] at the New Drama Theater in 1909.