The exhibition of Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) correspondence, books, and memorabilia held at the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture will be the second event at Columbia University celebrating Milosz's Centennial Year established by UNESCO.  The opening of the exhibition about the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1980 will coincide with a multilingual reading of his poetry recited by members of the Columbia University community. Professor Alan Timberlake, the Director of East Central European Center will open the event. Dr. Anna Frajlich-Zajac of the Department of Slavic Languages will address the question of the significance of the presented exhibition items. After that, members of the Columbia community will be given the opportunity to read their favorite Milosz poems in translation in the language of their choice. 

Professor Helen Vendler, prominent scholar and Milosz's personal friend will be a honorary guest at the event. 

The reading, sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages, the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture, the East Central European Center, the Harriman Institute, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, the Polish Student Society at Columbia University, and Barnard College, will take place on October 27 at 5:30 p.m. in Butler library, room 523.  The event will be followed by a reception at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 

Bakhmeteff Archive has acquired the papers of Fiodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), renowned Russian opera singer, and his son Boris Chaliapin (1904-1979), noted artist and illustrator. A gift from the estate of Helcia Chaliapin, the papers cover the time period of 1904-2009.

Fiodor Chaliapin was the foremost Russian opera singer of the 20th century. Largely self-taught, Chaliapin began his career in provincial touring companies of Czarist Russia, then joined the Bolshoi in 1899 where he played Boris Godunov, the role he would be most associated with. He made his European debut in Milan in 1902 and his New York debut in 1907.  Chaliapin remained in Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917, but eventually emigrated to Paris. He died in Paris in 1938.

Fiodor’s son, Boris, received his art education in Russia and Paris and first exhibited his work in the foyer of London’s Royal Opera House in 1927. Boris Chaliapin painted a series of pictures of his father both on and off the stage and in the 1920 and 1930s had a considerable reputation for portrait painting in Russia. He then moved to New York City where he supported himself as an illustrator. Between 1939 and 1970, Boris Chaliapin painted about 400 portraits for the cover of Time magazine.

The collection includes photographs inscribed by prominent contemporaries to Fiodor Chaliapin, as well as concert and theater fliers and posters documenting his career. The archive also features Boris Chaliapin’s series of letters from the Korovine family in emigration, Sergei Rakhmaninov and Theodor Dreiser, letters from Akim and Tamara Tamirova discussing film projects with Orson Welles, hundreds of letters detailing the process of creating a Time magazine cover; a sketchbook regarding the U.S. release of the 1933 film Don Quixote, starring Fiodor Chaliapin, hundreds of news clippings, mainly about Boris and his father, Time/Life photos from Boris’s 1960 trip to the Soviet Union, and many original works of art.