On the Dating of Some of Akaki Tsereteli’s Personal Letters

Abstract

A classic writer is the one whose work has been inexhaustible for centuries. Among such  writers is Akaki Tsereteli. The work on the new academic edition of the poet’s works has revealed a lot of new material, both literary and publicistic pieces, as well as hitherto unknown documents and records that provide various interesting details from the writer’s life. In this paper, we deal with several personal letters of the poet addressed to Anastasia Machabeli. Akaki’s attitude toward Tasso, respect for her, platonic love or unexpressed hidden feelings for more than a century has been a subject of controversy among the men of letters, scholars or mere mortals. It is just by comparison of the new materials found during the academic edition and the writer’s personal correspondence that the date of some letters was determined, and in several of them was changed.

Naturally, by dating of these letters, the study of personal letters or the entire creativity of the writer and more in-depth study of them does not end with this. The poet’s personal documents, records and business papers, which will be included in a separate corresponding volume of the new twenty volume academic edition, promise to reveal many novelties, lift secret veils over Akaki’s works and also awaken new and interesting episodes in the biography of a classic writer.