I. A. Bunin's Notes and Extracts in View of an Academic Omnibus Edition

On the eve of his 150th ann-rsary, the archival heritage of I. A. Bunin is studied with great care; new materials are being introduced into scientific use; a source base for academic omnibus edition of the first Russian Nobel laureate in literature is being prepared; methods and principles for the publication of works of different genres (poetry, journalism, prose, and archival materials) are being developed. The article focuses on specific materials from I. A. Bunin's archive, so far little-studied, odd notes, extracts, and marginalia in books and newspaper cuttings. Bunin left many such records on the books given to him, on the magazines read, on the newspaper clippings sent to him, etc. And many of these are of significant interest for researchers. The corpus of these materials happens to he segmented, as the rest of I. A. Bunin's archive is; its parts are deposited in the Leeds Russian Archives in the University of Leeds (Leeds, Great Britain), in the Department of Manuscripts of the A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMLI RAN), in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), in the fonds of the I. S. Turgenev Oryol State United Literary Museum, as well as in several archives in Western Europe and in the USA, in university, federal, and private collections. All Bunin's handwritten notes fall into the following three types of materials: (1) marginalia in hooks; (2) marginalia in newspaper and magazine clippings; and (3) odd notes not included in notebooks. Of greatest interest arc Bunin's marginalia on cuttings from newspapers and magazines. Bunin closely 'followed all responses to his work, collected clippings and stored them in a trunk, a 'clippings trunk,' as he called it. It is more important, however, to divide of the an-ay of notes by their content: (1) quotations; (2) refinements and arguments; (3) assessments and opinions. Marginalia containing refinements and arguments, as well as those containing assessments and opinions, are extremely important. Some remarks clarify Bunin's artistic opinions, other offer corrections, clarifications, comments on his own or others work, or on the epoch itself, yet other reveal particularities of the artistic conception. Bunin's assessments and comments clarify his literary and public position, providing-wide context necessary for understanding the writer's individuality. The article sets up a research problem how to introduce this corpus of materials into scientific use and on what principles to prepare them for publication.