Materials for Biobibliography
This article reveals the life of biography of Russian poet and translator Natalia Nikolaevna
Sokolova, who made her debut in poetry under the pseudonym “Tea Es”. The reliable dates of
her life (1888–1968), based on archival documents, are revealed for the first time. The daughter of high-ranking pedagogical officials, niece of the well known Russian and then British
medievalist-legist Sir Paul Vinogradov (1854–1925), Sokolova completed higher education as
an actress in Moscow and as a philologist at the University of Zurich. Having entered the literary life during the First World War as the author of poems about Italy (written in the traditionalist manner yet) and translations from Giacomo Leopardi, Sokolova then joined the Moscow literary group “Zhatva” (“The Harvest”). However, her new poems, already announced,
could not be published then due to the paper and printing crisis caused by the war and revolution. In the first Soviet years Sokolova served as a secretary of famous theater director
Vsevolod Meyerhold. At the same time she began working as a fiction translator, she made
the first complete Russian translation of William Morris’s novel “News from Nowhere”
(1923). At the beginning of 1924, Sokolova managed to publish several new poems (demonstrating the evolution of her poetics) in the ephemeral typewritten magazine “Hermes” (the
complete set is reproduced here).
By the end of the 1920s Sokolova had prepared a book containing her 120 original poems
(meanwhile, no more than a dozen of them are known now), but this publication was not allowed by the Soviet censorship and, highly likely, these texts were irrevocably lost. Since the
early 1930s Sokolova completely switched to translation works, which successfully continued
for almost four more decades. Some significant details are also contained in the correspondence between Sokolova and the poet and novelist Boris Sadovskoy, also presented in this publication (including a few poems by Sadovskoy).
Arhippov E. Ya. Rassypannyj steklyarus: Sochineniya i pis’ma [Scattered bugles].
Ed. by T. F. Neshumova. Moscow, Vodoley, 2015, vol. 2, 832 p. (in Russ.)
Arion, Stikhi. 1 [Arion, poems]. Petersburg, Siringa, 1918, 64 p. (in Russ.)
Chennevière G. Le Rôle social delà musique. Mercure de France, 1920, no. 539,
vol. CXLIV, 1 décembre, p. 289–307.
Chennevière G. Sovremennaya frantsuzskaya muzyka. Trans. by Sokolova. In:
Zapadnye sborniki: Literatura-iskusstvo [Western Collections: Literature-Art]. [Moscow], Novaya Moskva, 1923, iss. 1, p. 252–264. (in Russ.)
Du Bois C., Demetracopoulou D. Wintu Myths. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1930–1931, vol. 28, p. 279–403.
Dve zari (Stikhi) [Two dawns (poems)]. Ed. by I. A. Novikov. Moscow, Nikitinskie
subbotniki, 1927, 43 p. (in Russ.)
Germes [Hermes], 1923, no. 3 (Sept.) [Mashinopisnyj al’manakh]. (in Russ.)
Gispa V., Mizor F. Negrityanka v kupal’ne [Black lady in the bath]. Roman, trans.
from Fr. by N. Sokolova, with intr. by P. S. Kogan. Moscow, “Sovremennye problem”
N. A. Stollyar, 1926, 250 p. (in Russ.)
Gornung L. V. “Svidetel’ terpelivyj”: dnevniki, memuary [“Patient Witness...”: Diaries, Memoirs]. Prep., intr., comment. by T. F. Neshumova. Moscow, AST, 2019, 761,
[7] p. (in Russ.)
Gustav Shpet i shekspirovskij krug. Pis’ma, dokumenty, perevody [Gustav Shpet
and the Shakespearean Circle. Letters, documents, translations]. Ed. by T. G. Shchedrina. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petroglif, 2013, 760 p. (in Russ.)
Katalog vystavki kartin i skul’ptury Obshchestva khudozhnikov “Bubnovyj valet”
[Exhibition catalog of the “Jack of Diamonds” artistic association]. [Moscow, 1916],
16 p. (in Russ.)
Kipnis S. E. Novodevichiy memorial. Nekropol’ monastyrya i kladbishcha [Novodevichy Memorial: Necropolis of the Monastery and Cemetery]. 2 nd ed. Moscow, Art-
Biznes-Centr, 1998, 640 p. (in Russ.)
Kovalenko G. F. Kievskiy Per Gyunt. In: Kristian Kron. Zhivopis’ [Xan (Christian)
Krohn. Paintings] [Katalog vystavki 15 maya – 20 iyulya 2014, galereya “Nashi khudozhniki”]. St. Petersburg, Petroniy, 2014, 150 p. (in Russ.)
Kupchenko V. P. Trudy i dni Maksimiliana Voloshina. Letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva.
1917–1932 [Works and days of Maksimilian Voloshin: Chronicle of life and work.
1917–1932]. St. Petersburg, Aleteya; Simferopol, Sonet, 2007, 608 p. (in Russ.)
Meyerhold V. E. Stat’i. Pis’ma. Rechi. Besedy [Articles. Letters. Speeches. Conversations]. Comp., ed. and comment. by A. V. Fevralsky. Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1968,
vol. 2: 1917–1939, 643 p. (in Russ.)
Meyerhold V. E., Bebutov V. M., Aksenov I. A. Amplua aktera [The Actor’s
Emploi]. Moscow, GVYRM, 1922, 15 p. (in Russ.)
Minaev N. N. Nezhnee neba: Sobranie stikhotvoreniy [More gentle than the sky:
collected poems]. Comp., afterword and comment. by A. L. Sobolev. Moscow, Vodoley, 2014, 848 p. (in Russ.)
Morris W. Vesti niotkuda, ili Epokha mira [News from Nowhere (or An Epoch of
Rest)]. Trans. from Engl. by N. N. Sokolova, with afterword by D. A. Gorbov. [Moscow], Novaya Moskva, 1923, 224 p. (in Russ.)
Moskovskiy nekropol’ [Moscow Necropolis]. St. Petersburg, Tip. M. M. Stasyulevicha, 1908, vol. 2: K–P, 486 p. (in Russ.)
Pisateli sovremennoy epokhi: Biobibliograficheskiy slovar’ [Writers of the Modern
Era: A Biobibliographic Dictionary], Moscow, Russkoe bibliograficheskoe obshhestvo,
EksPrintNV, 1995, vol. 2, 272 p. (in Russ.)
Russkaja mysl’ [The Russian Thought] [Zhurnal] (Petrograd). 1916–1918. (in Russ.)
Sadovskoy B. A. Moroznye uzory: Stikhotvoreniya i pis’ma [Frosty patterns: Poems
and letters]. Comp. by T. V. Anchugova. Moscow, Vodoley, 2010, 568 p. (in Russ.)
Sadovskoy B. Stikhotvoreniya, rasskazy v stikhakh, p’esy i monologi [Poems, stories in verse, plays and monologues]. Comp. by S. V. Shumihin. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskiy proekt, 2001, 398 p. (in Russ.)
Severnye zapiski: Literaturno-politicheskiy ezhemesyachnik [The Northern Notes:
Literary and Political Monthly] (Petrograd). 1916. (in Russ.)
Shervinskiy S., Narovchatov S., Kalashnikova E. Slovo proshchaniya. Literaturnaya
Rossiya [Obituary], 1969, no. 2 (314), 10 Jan., p. 24. (in Russ.)
Sobolev A. L. “Zubovskaya pustyn’”: istoriya predposledney moskovskoy kvartiry
Vyacheslava Ivanova. In: Vyacheslav Ivanov: issledovaniya i materialy [Vyacheslav
Ivanov: Studies and materials]. Comp. by S. V. Fedotova, A. B. Shishkin. Moscow,
IMLI RAS Publ., 2018, iss. 3, p. 308–355. (in Russ.)
Svobodnyj chas: Literaturnyj zhurnal [The Free hour: Literary magazine]. (Moscow), 1918. (in Russ.)
Timenchik R. D. Ital’yanskie motivy v russkoy poezii nachala XX veka. In: Timenchik R. D. Angely – lyudi – veshchi: v oreole stikhov i druzey [Angels – Persons – Objects: in a nimbus of poems and friends]. Moscow, Mosty kul’tury, Gesharim, 2016,
p. 515–583. (in Russ.)
1001 poetessa Serebryanogo veka [1001 Poetess of the Silver Age]. In 3 vols.
Comp. by Viktor Kudryavtsev. Moscow, Prestizh Buk, 2019, vol. 2, 688 p. (in Russ.)
Usov D. S. “My svedeny pochti na net...” [“We’re almost nullified...”]. Ed. by
T. Neshumova. Moscow, Ellis Lak, 2011, vol. 1: Stihi. Perevody. Stat’i, 672 p.; vol. 2:
Pis’ma, 768 p. (in Russ.)
Yazykov D. D. Materialy dlya “Obzora zhizni i sochineniy russkikh pisateley i pisatel’nits”. Vyp. 15: (Russkie pisateli i pisatel’nicy, umershie v 1895 godu). In:
Rossiyskiy Arkhiv: Istoriya Otechestva v svidetel’stvakh i dokumentakh XVIII–XX vv. [Russian Archive: History of the Fatherland in the Evidences and Documents of the
18 th – 20 th centuries]. Moscow, Studiya TRITE, 2001, [vol. 11], p. 569–596. (in Russ.)
Materials for Biobibliography // Сюжетология и сюжетография. 2020. № 1. Pp. 373–400. DOI: 10.25205/2410-7883-2020-1-373-400.