The Wellspring of Stus Studies

This is the first and so far only classical scholarly edition of this uncanonized classic. Not by coincidence someone aptly described it as the first encyclopedia of the generation of the 1960s. The sixth and last volume is bound in black with gold letters: Vasyl Stus. Volume VI. Considering today's publishing problems, the whole project is truly unique. This last volume is in two books and contains Vasyl Stus's correspondence with friends and relatives. Prior to the presentation, the poet's son and member of the editorial board, Dmytro Stus agreed to an interview with The Day.

Q: This six-volume edition represents your father's verse, prose writings, plays, literary reviews, publicist features, literary translations, and letters. How fully do you think it embraces his creative legacy?

A: It is about 85 percent of what has been preserved and ninety percent of what we have been able to unearth. It took us over two years to search, catalog, and restore his manuscripts. Apart from the fact that every poem has a reference to the autograph, in accordance with academic publishing standards, each has a detailed background story. And I would like to stress that my father's Palimpsests, for which Heinrich BЪll once nominated him for the Nobel Prize, are for the first time published precisely the way the author wrote and edited them. In all previous editions one could find fifty to 150 errors. In some publications poems were included with references to some ambiguous autographs or as recited by someone who seemed to remember the original text. Actually, we did all this work to put an end to all that myth-making and editorial creativity.

Q: The print run is 2,500 copies. Is this a little or a lot for an edition of such caliber?

A: Neither much nor little. It is a scholarly edition, meant as a basis for all further publications. Foreign publishers have already shown interest in publishing German, English, and Russian translations. A reprint will soon appear in France.

Q: There is much discussion focused on The Bird of the Soul collection. For a long time it was considered irretrievably lost and then you discovered several poems...

A: Yes, we have discovered several poems. They are attributed to The Bird of the Soul, but I still have doubts on that score. The thing is that the KGB file in which they were found was transferred from Perm to Lubyanka, but we could not find any entries in the in and out ledgers.

Q: Will this edition be on sale at bookstores?

A: We are donating about 400 copies to libraries, volunteer organizations, and private citizens for their help and participation in fund-raising. Of course, this edition would never have become reality without the money of sponsors. Precisely for want of funds it is the only project of this type completed to date. The multivolume Shevchenko edition stopped after the third volume came out and the Ukrainian Literary Encyclopedia after its first volume, Art of Ukraine.

We are planning to sell the rest of the copies. Regrettably, the system of multivolume distribution by subscription died in Ukraine together with financial stability. In Kyiv one will be able to get the volumes only at the Znannia bookstore or through the Prosvita Society. Moreover, our potential readers are not people of means, and the price is quite high. Say, at the presentation one will be able to buy all the nine books at UAH 80 - and this does not even cover its publication costs, which are double that price. We have been receiving orders from the Diaspora and there is a real possibility that most copies will go overseas.

Q: How do you think your father would have reacted to the project?

A: In all honesty, I never considered this. At first my only motive force was the researcher's joy of discovery, then our team of five lived through a period of despair, painful efforts to find sponsors, and the last two years we worked on sheer enthusiasm. We had to finish the project come what may. I think that every member of the team has grown professionally during this period, although our work was not narrowly professional when one has to become immersed in sophisticated cultural layers. The main thing was the moral challenge and personal growth.