IVAN FRANKO BEHIND THE SCENES OF “THE FIRST WREATH”, OR TEN CONTROVERSIES OF THE PUBLISHING HISTORY OF THE ALMANAC

Abstract

The article investigates the publishing history of the literary almanac “The First Wreath”, which was published in Lviv in 1887. This almanac was the first book of this type in which 17 woman writers from two parts of then politically divided Ukraine, Galicia and Naddniprianschyna, were able to unite under one cover. The main idea of the almanac was declared as “in the name of our national unity”. Despite the fact that the title of the publication contained only the names of both editors and patrons, Olena Pchilka and Natalia Kobrynska, the entire publishing process was managed by Ivan Franko. He drew up the plan and contents, selected materials, corresponded with writers, edited and proofread the texts, and was engaged in the distribution and popularization of the almanac after its publication.
 Frankо’s participation in the history of “The First Wreath” is one of the unexplored pages of his professional profile as a publisher and editor, and this paper aims to comprehend Franko’s role in this enterprise. On the other hand, attention is paid to the complex and lengthy publishing process of the collection, which had its own interesting backstage, hidden conflicts, and individual stories, which can be conditionally summarized as ten controversies of “The First Wreath”. The paper describes in detail each of these stories, which reveal interesting facts of the writers’ communication, the genesis of many works, and biographical facts of the collection’s participants. Among the main controversies of “The First Wreath” are the history with its title, editorial interventions of Franko in the texts of Kobrynska and Olena Pchilka, ‘tragicomic story’ of the abridgment of Olena Pchilka’s short story “Comrades” (“Tovaryshky”), secret pseudonyms of socialist women authors, non-admission of Olha Kobylianska’s work to publication, a conflict between Olena Pchilka and Hanna Barvinok, and violation of editorial policy by some authors.
 Despite the complicated publishing controversies of “The First Wreath”, each of which to some extent involved Franko, this collection entered the history of the literary process, the Ukrainian press, and the women’s movement as an important manifestation of the unification progress and intellectual result of the consolidation efforts of Ukrainian woman. At the same time, the almanac influenced the fates and literary biographies of all its authors.