Телефонная книжка

Kniga vospominaniĭ avtora «Teni» i «Obyknovennogo chuda», «Drakona» i stsenariia k «Zolushke», mudretsa i skazochnika Evgeniia Shvartsa, nazvannaia po-domashnemu «Telefonnoĭ knizhkoĭ», v memuarnoĭ literature analogov ne imeet. Vo-pervykh, ėto nastoiashchaia proza, napisannaia iskliuchitelʹno dlia sebia, bez ogliadki na sovremennikov i tsenzuru, i poėtomu absoliutno pravdivaia. Vo-vtorykh, ėto blagorodnaia proza, kak blagoroden ee sozdatelʹ, — lishennaia zavisti i nytʹia, strogaia k samomu avtoru i spravedlivaia k izobrazhennym v neĭ zhiznennym personazham. Pochemu «Telefonnaia knizhka», a ne prosto «Kniga vospominaniĭ»? Potomu chto chernovikom dlia pamiati byla realʹnaia telefonnaia knizhka s familiiami realʹnykh liudeĭ, s kotorymi vstrechalsia pisatelʹ v zhizni, — ot «A» do «IA». Ot izvestnykh, imenitykh, proslavlennykh, oblaskannykh liubovʹiu narodnoĭ do malykh mira sego, ne pretenduiushchikh na osobuiu slavu, — mastera po ustanovke telefonov ili teatralʹnoĭ portnikhi. Sam Shvarts zadachu sozdaniia knigi sformuliroval tak: «IA pishu o zhivykh liudiakh, kotorykh rassmatrivaiu po mere sil podrobno i tochno, slovno iavlenie prirody. Mne strashno s nedavnikh por, chto liudi slozhneĭshego vremeni, pod ego davleniem prinimavshie ili ne prinimavshie slozhneĭshie formy, meniavshiesia nezametno dlia sebia ili uporno ne zamechavshie peremen vokrug, — ischeznut. Net, proshche. Mne strashno, chto vse, chto seĭchas shumit i zhivet vokrug, — umret, i nikto ikh i slovom ne pomianet — zhivushchikh. I ėto ne vpolne tochno. Mne kazhetsia, chto liuboe zhivoe litso — ėto istoricheskoe litso — i tak dalee, i tak dalee. Vot ia i pishu, nazyvaia imena i familii istoricheskikh lits». I ėtu postavlennuiu zadachu pisatelʹ vypolnil s chestʹiu.

The book of memoirs by the author of "The Shadow" and "An Ordinary Miracle", "The Dragon" and the script for "Cinderella", the sage and storyteller Eugene Schwartz, called the "Phone Book" at home, has no analogues in the memoir literature. Firstly, this is real prose, written exclusively for oneself, without regard to contemporaries and censorship, and therefore absolutely true. Secondly, it is noble prose, as its creator is noble, devoid of envy and whining, strict to the author himself and fair to the life characters depicted in it. Why a "Phone book" and not just a "Book of memories"? Because the draft for memory was a real phone book with the names of real people the writer had met in his life, from "A" to "Z". From the famous, famous, illustrious, caressed by the love of the people to the small of this world, who do not claim special fame, they are masters of installing telephones or a theatrical dressmaker. Schwartz himself formulated the task of creating the book as follows: "I write about living people, whom I consider in detail and accurately as much as possible, like a natural phenomenon. I have been afraid lately that people of the most difficult time, who under its pressure took or did not take the most complex forms, changed imperceptibly for themselves or stubbornly did not notice the changes around them, will disappear. No, it's easier. I am afraid that everything that is making noise and living around now will die, and no one will remember them by a word — the living. And this is not entirely accurate. It seems to me that any living person is a historical person — and so on, and so on. So I write, naming the names and surnames of historical figures." And the writer fulfilled this task with honor.