135-річчю від дня народження Лесі Українки (1871-1913) присвячується презентацію видань Тамари Скрипки “Дворянське гніздо Косачів” та “Лариса Петрівна Косач-Квітка (Леся Українка) Біографічні матеріали. Спогади. Іконографія”

April 8, 2006


вступне слово
д-ра Олекси Біланюка,
д-р Лариса Онишкевич

Лариса Онишкевич Олекса Біланюк

TAMARA SKRYPKA PRESENTS HER NEW BOOK ABOUT LESIA UKRAINKA
by Lubomyr S. Onyshkevych

New York – On Saturday, April 8th, 2006 at the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) in New York City, a new book was presented about the life and family of the famous Ukrainian writer Larissa Kosach-Kvitka, who is known under the pen name of Lesia Ukrainka.

Тамара Скрипка

The new book was compiled and edited by the literary researcher Tamara Skrypka from Lutsk, Ukraine, who is now living in the USA. Ms. Skrypka has been studying the life of Lesia Ukraïnka for many years, and has published several scholarly articles as well as a book on the Kosach-Drahomanov families entitled “Aristocratic Nest of the Kosach Family” (“Dvorianske Hnizdo Kosachiv”, Lviv 1999).

The new massive, luxurious book, “Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka — Lesia Ukraïnka: Biohrafichni Materialy—Spohady—Ikonohrafiia”, (New York —Kyiv, Fakt, 2004) contains 450 pages, and includes 172 family photographs of Larysa Kosach-Kvitka and her well-known family, which gave the Ukrainian culture not just Lesia Ukrainka, but also her mother, the writer Olena Pchilka, her uncle, the scholar Mykhailo Drahomanov, and other well-known names.

The book by Ms. Skrypka presents numerous documents, letters and memoirs, as well as an extensive collection of photographs, many of which have never been published previously. Thus, it represents a treasure-trove of new material not just about Lesia Ukraïnka, but also about the whole extended family of Drahomanovs and Kosaches, as well as leading members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of the time.

Тамара Скрипка, розповідає про віднайдені фотографії які надрукованано вперше

The program, which was chaired by Dr. Maria Rewakowicz, was opened by Dr. Larissa Onyshkevych, the President of NTSh, and then Dr. Oleksa Bilaniuk, the former President of UVAN and co-editor of the publication, introduced Ms. Skrypka. Next, Ms. Skrypka herself gave a talk about the new book, stressing the aristocratic lines of the illustrious family, which traced its roots to the Ukrainian kozak officer class. During the long years of Soviet occupation, members of the family were persecuted and suppressed, causing the extensive family archives to be scattered over the world and numerous important documents to be destroyed or lost. Ms. Skrypka described her odyssey in search of these documents in Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union, as well as in Central and Western Europe and North America.

As a result of her search, numerous materials were located, in particular a large number of photographs of the Kosach-Drahomanov family. However, an unknown quantity of such material remains lost and may never be found. Nevertheless, what is collected in the new massive volume in all probability will be considered the definitive corpus of available biographical material about this remarkable family.

The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer session, as well as by a general discussion in the friendly NTSh building on Fourth Avenue.

Олекса Біланюк, Лариса Онишкевич, Тамара Скрипка, Марія Ревакович