S A TA N ’ S D I A R Y B O N I A N D L I V E G H T P U B L I SH ER S NEW Y O R ! PREFACE ’ ” ’ ATAN d s t S DIARY, Leonid An reyev las ork a w , was completed by the great Russian S i few days before he died n Finland , in Sep 1 91 9 tember, . But a few years ago the most pop ular and successful of Russian writers , Andreyev ad l died almost penniless , a s , tragic figure , disi l i e - us on d, broken hearted over the tragedy of Russia . A year ago Leonid Andreyev wrote me that h e was eager to come to America , to study this coun try and familiarize Americans with the fate of hi s unfortunate countrymen . I arranged for his visit hi to this country and informed him of t s by cable . But on the very day I sent my cable the s ad news came from Finland announcin g that Leonid An e dr yev died of heart failure . In “ Satan ’ s Diary ” Andreyev summed up his boundless disillusionment i n an absorbing satire e on human life . F arlessly and mercilessly he hurled the falsehoods and hypocrisies into th e face of life . He portrayed Satan coming to this earth to amuse himself and play. Having as - sumed the form of an American multi millionaire , Satan s et out on a tour through Europe m quest of amusement and adventure . Before him passed m various for s of spurious virtues, hypocrisies , the ruthless cruelty of man and the often deceptive innocence of woman . Within a short time Satan finds himself outwitted , deceived , relieved of his e his millions , mocked , humiliated , b aten by man in own devilish devices . ’ The story of An dreyev s beginning as a writer is best told in his autobiography which he gave 1 08 me in 9 . ” “ I l 1 871 and was born , he said , in Oryo , in , studied there at the gymnasium . I studied poor ly ; while in the seventh class I was for a whole n year known as the worst student , a d my mark 4 3. for conduct was never higher than , sometimes The most pleasant time I spent at school , which I recall to this day with pleasure , was recess time d a between lessons , an also the rare occ sions when sun I was sent out from the classroom . The beams , the free sunbeams , which penetrated some cleft and which playe d with the dust in the hall — i s o s o s o way all th s was mysterious , interesting, full of a peculiar , hidden meaning . ‘ When I studied at the gymnasium my father , an engineer, died . As a university student I was in dire need . During—my first course in St . Peters burg I even starved not s o much out of real n e es sit c y as because of my youth , inexperience , and ' my inability to utilize the unnecessary parts o f u . my cost me . I am to this day ashamed to think that I went two days without food at a time when I had two or three pairs of trousers and two over coats which I could have sold . V1 It was then that I wrote my first story—about a starving student . I cried when I wrote it , and the editor, who returned my manuscript , laughed . That sto ry of mine remained unpublished . 1 894 at In , in January, I made an unsuccessful tempt to kill myself by shooting. As a result of this unsuccessful attempt I was forced by the au h riti t o e s into religious penitence , and I contracted heart trouble , though not of a serious nature , yet very annoying. During this time I made one or two unsuccessful attempts at writing ; I devoted myself with greater pleasure and success to paint ing, which I loved from childhood on . I made por traits to order at 3 and 5 r ubles a piece . “ In 1 897 I received my diploma and became an assistant attorney, but I was at the very outset f h sidetracked . I was o fered a position on T e Cou rier t , for which I was to report cour proceed ings . I did not succeed in getting any practice s as a lawyer . I had only one ca e and lost it at every point . “ 1 898 — In — I wrote my first story for the Easter number and since that time I have devoted my self exclusively to literature . Maxim Gorky helped me considerably in my literary work by ” . c his always practical advi e and suggestions . ’ Andreyev s first steps in literature , his first short stories , attracted but little attention at the time of their appearance . It was only when Coun tess Tolstoy, the wife of Leo Tolstoy, in a letter “ No vo e Vrem a to the y y , came out in defense of artistic purity and moral power in contemporary ” d l i u t i literature , ec ar ng that R ssian socie y, n stead of buying, reading and making famous the l “ i works of the Andreyevs , shou d r se against ” such filth with indignation , that almost every body who knew how to read in Russia turned to the little volume of the young writer . a C t In her att ck upon Andreyev, oun ess Tolstoy s aid as follows t An The poor new wri ers , like dreyev, suc ceede d only in concentrating their attention on the filthy point of human degradation and uttered a l - cry to th e undeveloped, ha f intelligent reading an d public, inviting them to see to examine the decomposed corpse of human degradation and to ’ close their eyes to God s wonderful, vast world , wi with the beauties of nature, th the majesty of i e um art , w th the lofty y arnings of the h an soul, with the re ligious and m—oral struggles and the great ideals of goodnes s even with the down fall, misfortunes and weaknesses of such people as Dostoyevsky depicted . In describing all these eve ry true artist should illumine clearly b e n ot fore humanity the side of filth and vice , but should stru ggle against them by illumining the highest ideals of good , truth , and the triumph over s evil , weakne s , and the vices of mankind . should like to cry out loudly to the whole world in order to help those unfortunate people whose wings , given to each of them for high flights to ward the understanding of the spiritual light , beauty, kindness , and God , are clipped by these ” Andreyevs . This letter of Countess Tolstoy called forth a i an a e s torm of protest n the Russi press , and , str ng h e s ex to s ay, t representatives of the fair were among the warmest defenders of the young au An i n thor . swering the attack, many women, the their letters to the press , pointed out that author of “ Anna Karenina ” had been abused in almost the same manner for his “ Kreutzer Son ” ata n d , a that Tolstoy himself had been accused of e xerting just s uch an influence as the Countess n attributed to A dreyev over the youth of Russia . Since the publication of Countess Tolstoy ’ s con demnation h as , Andreyev produced a serie s of “ m r Th e aste pieces , such as Life of Father Vas ” “ sily, a powerful psychological study ; Red “ Laughter, a war story, written with the blood ” “ ” of Russia ; The Life of Man , a striking mo “ ” ralit t y presen ation in five acts ; Anathema , his “ m Th e greatest dra a , and Seven Who Were ” l Hanged , in which the horrors of Russian ife un der the Tsar were delin eated with such beau n tiful simplicity a d power that Turgenev, or Tol h stoy himself, would have signed his name to t is masterpiece . Thus the first accusations against Andreyev w his ere disarmed by artistic productions , per meated with sincere , profound love for all that 1 3 pure in life . Dostoyevsky and Maupassant de “ icted e t p more subj c s , such as that treated in The ” Abyss , than Andreyev . But with them thes e stories are lost in the great mass of their other A works , while in ndreyev, who at that time had lx but fe r as yet produced a w short sto ies , works “ ” like The Abyss stood out in bold relief . I recall my first meeting with Leonid Andreyev 1 908 . a t in , two weeks fter my visit to Coun Leo n i Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polya a . At that t me he had already become the most popular Russian writer, his popularity having overshadowed even that of Maxim Gorky . ’ As I drove from Terioki to Andreyev s house , l d s t~ covere a ong the u d road , the stern and taciturn little Finnish driver suddenly broke the silence by saying to me in broken Russian “ Andreyev is a good writer . Although he i . s a Russian , he is a very good man He is build n d ing a beautiful house here in Finland , a he ” gives employment to many of our people . We were soon at the gate of Andreyev ’ s beau — a u - tiful villa fantastic str cture , weird looking, original in design, something like the conception “ ” of the architect in the Life of Man .