Consists of Russian-language works, correspondence, and printed matter of Osip Emil'evich Mandelʹshtam. The collection contains holograph and typed manuscripts of his poems, reviews, articles, and essays, often in draft form representing different stages of his work, many of which are in the hand of his wife, Nadezhda, who acted as his amanuensis. Among the works are the following collections of poetry: Kamen, Tristia, Poems (1928), New Poems, and Voronezh Notebooks. Prose works include Fourth Prose, Journey to Armenia, Conversation About Dante, and The Egyptian Stamp. A copy of Kamen belonging to S. P. Kablukov and Poems (1928) inscribed to N. E. Shtempel are also in the collection. In addition, there are official documents; correspondence as well as notations by Nadezhda on Mandelʹshtam's political situation; letters from Mandelʹshtam to Nadezhda [Khazina]; and letters from Soviet poet Anna Akhmatova, a letter from Arthur Miller, and others, some of which contain references to the Writer's Union.

Abbreviations: OM = Osip Emil'evich Mandelʹshtam, NM = Nadezhda Iakovlevna Mandelʹshtam

Transliteration: Titles are cited in accordance with Library of Congress transliteration rules. In addition, Russian titles are cited in the poetry index, as well as on folders.

Poem numbering: To facilitate research, material for each poem found in manuscripts is identified by the number under which the poem is listed in the most complete edition of Osip Mandelʹshtam's Collected Works (the edition is hereafter referred to as the New York edition):

Sobranie sochinenii. Edited by Gleb Struve, Nikita Struve and Boris Filippov. New York: Inter-Language Literary Associates; Paris: YMCA-Press, 1964-1981.

vol. I (Poetry). Introductions by Clarence Brown and Gleb Struve. Second edition, revised and expanded, 1967.

vol. II (Prose). Introductions by Boris Filippov. 1966. Second edition, revised and expanded, 1971.

vol.III (Essays and Letters). Introductions by George Ivask, Nikita Struve and Boris Filippov, 1969.

vol. IV (Supplement Volume), 1981.

For poems, variants and fragments not found in the New York edition, the title/first line is followed by "no. ?".

Titles:

Prose: titles are cited as given in manuscripts, earlier manuscript descriptions, or published texts; if an item has a working title that was changed in final version, that title is cited in square brackets; if an item is incomplete, unpublished and unidentified, first line in square brackets is cited as title.

Poetry: untitled poems identified by first line; fragments of poems (drafts of individual stanzas, lines, etc.) not listed in the New York edition as variants under a separate number are cited by italicized title/first line in square brackets of listed poem/variant under a separate number they refer to.

Dates: Dates in the date column are cited as given in manuscripts and copies, and indicate the time when the item was written, not the time the copy was made.

Prose and letters: if no date is given in manuscript/copy, date written is, wherever possible, taken from earlier descriptions, the New York edition, or, in case of letters, sometimes deduced from contents; it is cited in square brackets.

Poetry: since in many cases different manuscripts and copies of the same poem give conflicting day/month references, the date in the date column is cited exactly as in this or that particular manuscript/copy. If no date is given, undated is entered in the date column. If only month and/or day is given, the year is deduced from other sources and cited in square brackets.

Manuscripts vs. Copies: Distinctions are made (always based on earlier descriptions - primarily I. Semenko's) between manuscripts in the hand of Nadezhda Mandelʹshtam (made from the author's drafts and revised by him, dictated by the author, etc.) and copies in her hand. Also, distinctions are made between NM's copies made in OM's lifetime and copies made after his death in 1938.