"Yours faithfully, Oles Honchar"

On April, 3 the greatest writer could be 90 years old

As well as all who at the beginning of the Second World War was about 18—25 years old, Oles Honchar was predetermined to pass through difficult front-lines, to feel bitter taste of defeats and gladness of victory over fascist invaders. In accordance with the certificate of his senior sister the future master of the Ukrainian word spoke to the world on April, 3, 1918 in the working settlement Lomivtsi (Dnipropetrovsk region), though the settlement Sukha of Kobelyanskyi  district of Poltava region is considered to be his official birth-place. Oles was brought up by his grandmother. “She personified everything that is the best in our people: industriousness, honesty, veracity, boundless kindness, giftedness. This eternal worker, this uneducated and ignorant, but exceptionally sensitive to stranger’s grief woman with her wide humaneness stands for me next to those whose creations we admire and whom we name real humanists for their activity”, — Oles exalted so highly the ordinary woman who meant a lot in his life.

Family did not part with “Kobzar” written by Taras Shevchenko and they had quite a lot of other books. Oles began to write when he was a child. The great role was played by the favourite teacher of language and literature who managed to inculcate “adoration to the native word and writing”. By the way, exactly he named him Oles instead of Sasha. Honchar didn’t part with this name till his last days (died in 1995).

Almost everything he wrote was saved — beginning with torn drafts of stories to the diaries (already published) and letters. Part of them was recently prepared for publishing by Valentyna Danylivna, the wife of the prominent prosaist, and his long-term comrade Yakiv Oksyuta. Halyna Lukova, the editor of publishing house “Ukrainian writer”, read the manuscript and the make-up of the book “Letters”. That is what she said: “While I was collating reprinting, it was as if I was listening to the unforgettable voice of Oles Terentiyovych. The prominent prose writer was extraordinarily demanding to the word, melodic of sentences, style of not only his novels (from famous “Standard-bearers” to top epic canvas “Your star”), but also of short nouts or passing notes. They involve large time space: from the beginning of the thirties till the middle of the nineties of the last century. Volodymyr Yavorivskyi wrote passionate introductory remarks to the edition and serious concluding remarks were written by Roman Lubkivskyi.

We give a few lively and bright letters from the future tangible edition of epistolary inheritance of Oles Honchar.

Mykola SLAVYNSKYI