Son of famed Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, Ilya Tolstoy (1866–1933) worked as a journalist and a consultant in Hollywood. Handwritten manuscript titled “My Tribute to Justice,” signed at the top of the first page “Count Ilya Tolstoy,” 13 pages, 8.5 x 11, dated 13–19 November, 1933. Tolstoy produced this manuscript from his hospital bed in New Haven, Connecticut as an attempt to vindicate his father and mother in the wake of his sister Alexandra’s scathing account of their parents’ relationship and personalities. The manuscript reads, in part: “My sister Alexandra wrote a most interesting book: ‘The Tragedy of Tolstoy.’ Undoubtedly the facts that she quotes are true, but unfortunately, in discussing the drama of my parents she is partial to such an extent that we, her three eldest brothers, had to write a statement in the papers protesting against her unkind and condemning attitude to our mother…. My mother copied and recopied ‘Anna Karenina’ from the beginning to the end seven times and some places of it she copied an innumerable number of times…. He then went to my mother and began to implore her to take all the property he had in her name and to liberate him from the burden that he was carrying…. It was very clear that the only solution of this question was to cut the gordian not [sic] and leave the family and this he intended to do. Then my mother began to implore him not to do it and he found himself on the horns of a terrible dilemma; he must either leave his family and follow his hearts desire or remain with his family and suffer the pangs of his conscience every time…. The opinion of my eldest brother Serge, whom I deeply respect, is: It would have been much better if father had left his family in the early eighties, and I am inclined to think that my brother is right.” Also included is an early typescript of the manuscript and an AQS in Russian and English on a separate sheet: “The Lip is no fool, the tongue is not a spade, it knows what is sweet.” Tolstoy died of heart and gall bladder disorders just weeks later. In fine condition, with light handling wear. R&R COA.
