Vyacheslav Ivanov and C.M. Bowra: a ... - UCL Discovery

next academic year at Harvard, where he hoped to pursue his Pindar studies. Ivanov, who shared
a strong interest in Pindar, offered him encouragement and advice on this topic. He also told
Bowra about his own work on a new German version of his earlier study of the religion of
Dionysus, a long-standing passionate interest to which he returned towards the end of his life.
When Bowra returned to Oxford, he wrote to Ivanov on 19 September 1948, promising to send
him details of recent books on Dionysus in English and to resume enquiries about plans for the
publication of his other works. 82
During the following year Bowra continued his efforts on Ivanov's behalf; he
corresponded with Isaiah Berlin in Harvard about attempts to raise money for the publication of
Svet Vechernii, 83 and later voiced his worries that Ivanov might now be too old to take in the
encouraging news about the publication of his book. 84 Sadly, Ivanov did not live to hear this
good news; he died on 16 July 1949 at the age of eighty-three, just under a year after his last
meeting with Bowra. When Bowra learned of his death, he wrote a warm letter to Dimitrii
Ivanov:
I saw the news of your father’s death in the “Manchester Guardian”, which had quite a
good notice of him. I fear it must be a great blow to you and your sister and that you will
miss him greatly. He was a great man, of a kind very uncommon at any time and
especially now. He really represented a great tradition and kept it alive by his great
candour and sincerity and passion. I am very proud to have known him. I cherish my
memories of him and often think of his kindnesses to me. 85
82
See Chapter 5, letter 11 and note 83.
83
Letter from Berlin to Bowra of . Copy of one page from this letter deposited with Bowra’s papers,
WCA.
84
Letter from Bowra to Berlin of 1 August . Copy deposited with Bowra’s papers, WCA. When Bowra
wrote this letter he was in Harvard and had not yet heard the news of Ivanov’s death on 16 July 1949.
85
Letter from Bowra to D.V. Ivanov of 24 August , RAI, Bowra folder. Typescript, one sheet, on printed
stationery of The Warden’s Lodgings, Wadham College, Oxford; no envelope.
90