February 12 marks the birthday of one of the best masters of Armenian prose – Hrant Matevosyan.
February 12 marks the birthday of one of the best masters of Armenian prose – Hrant Matevosyan. The 80th anniversary is a new occasion to reread Matevosyan’s works, which have become classical, to feel the writer, who has appreciated the breath of the village, nature and simple human values so much.
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Writers are taciturn people; they like to seclude themselves and to stay alone with their thoughts.Since the 70s of the last century Hrant Matevosyan’s apartment has become a gathering place for many renowned people.
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The Yerevan address of literature
After a long and boring interview a journalist asks Matevosyan, “Master, what is the address of literature for you?” The master thinks several seconds, and finds no answer. But he manages to respond to the pathetic question – “Yerevan city, Pushkin 3, apartment 49” The literature address for every writer is the place where they can stay alone, in solitude and write down their thoughts.
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How Mrs. Verzhine reached Anton Kochinyan’s cabinet
For a decade Hrant Matevosyan lived with his wife and children in a building at Komitas Avenue. But the territory of 31 square meters was too small for Matevosyan, who yearned for the vast fields and lawns of Ahnidzor, especially by the time when there was nobody at home.
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Their home was always full of guests; Matevosyan could stay alone and write only some hours in a week. Modesty did not allow to knock on the doors of officials and to ask for a larger apartment. His wife – Verzine Movsisyan, took advantage of her husband’s absence and decided to settle the problem once and forever. Enjoying his rest in Lori forests, Hrant could not even imagine that his wife had already reached the cabinet of the Central Committee First Secretary Anton Kochinyan and demanded a new building. Matevosyan reproached the wife for the four-room apartment allocated in the building of the Journalists’ Union. Three rooms would be enough.
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Matevosyan – an undisciplined writer
Hrant Matevosyan’s widow preserves the husband’s study room with a profound care. Everything is right the way the writer has left – the books, the desk, the collection of knives and the favorite pens – everything is in its place. Verzhine Movsisyan has been extremely attentive to her husband’s working hours. Over years the woman got convinced that Matevosyan was not the kind of a person working according to a schedule. He wrote mainly at night, during daytime he entered his study room for a while and made quick notes for the night’s work.
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The forests and nature of Lori – at the desk of the Yerevan apartment
Matevosyan knew by heart all the trees of the city center: the number of the pear-trees and oleasters in the streets, the time of their blossoming and harvesting. He picked up the hazelnuts fallen under the trees and put them on the table. Every time the wife was surprised seeing a pumpkin brought from the market in the office next to the papers and pens. It remained in the study room, in front of the writer’s eyes for many days: every work of nature was familiar to Hrant Matevosyan.
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Hrant Matevosyan’s plan of a complex-museum
After Hrant Matevosyan’s death, his son – Davit Matevosyan, started thinking of founding a museum. As a result of the negotiations with the officials of that time, it was decided to allocate a territory at Abovyan Park. The complex-museum is going to have reading halls, open air auditoriums and splendid libraries. The plan is still on the paper. The idea will be brought to life as soon as sufficient funding is found.
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