Золотая ручка: дамская литература XVIII-XIX вв.

Pelegeja Ivanovna Vel'jaseva-Volynceva (1 773-1810)   was  18 years  younger than her accomplished sister  Anna   and thus ,  though sh e, too,   managed to publish her first translation at age 9 , it appeared only in  the 1780s.   While  we  have no information about their mother – or perhaps they had two different mothers? –  these two  sisters  and their  younger brother  Dmitrij   certainly   enjoyed a domestic climate that was conducive to literary activity. As  Golicyn  notes,  Pelageja   published two  translations ,   both  of them  theatrica l and featuring her name squarely on the cover.  Both were  issued   by Nikolaj Novikov   at the  University of Moscow  P ress , the first was even printed at his expense ( Svodnyj katalog  1:130). Novikov   supported a number of  women writers and translators   during his years  at the press,  bringing   to Russian  readers  ten translations by  five  different  female translators   (Rosslyn  143 ) ; at least nine of the m  from

Anna Ivanovna V el' jaševa-Volynceva , next on our list, was born in 1755. She thus belongs to an era subsequent to that of Mavra Šepeleva , so we'll flag her with an asterisk (*) as we take this opportunity to indulge in a little chronological change of pace . Anna Ivanovna ' s literary activity overlapped with that of her sister Pelegeja Ivanovna , who will be the subject of our next post . Golicyn furnishes two distinct entries for Anna (46-47) and for Pelegeja (47), without explicit ly indicat ing that they were related, although the sisters’ unusual last name and matching patronymics suggest a familia l connection that is borne out in other sources. As was the case with most of the women writers who managed to publish their work in eighteenth-century Russia , the Vel ' jašev a -Volyncev a sisters belonged to a literary family . Their father, notes Golicyn, was a " general major of the artillery and writer " by the name of Ivan A