One more idea of V. I. Dal: Dictionary of Russian writers

This article reviews for the first time the materials of V. I. Dahl's «Notebook», published quite recently. It turns out that V. I. Dahl made an attempt to compile a dictionary of Russian writers. The approximate time of the work is substanti-ated between 1847–1855. In fact, the book is a draft attempt to write dictionary entries about certain authors. The alphabetical list includes 39 names, usually of less known authors, not previously included in existing dictionaries. The social status of the writers is of the greatest interest, since the authors selected by Dahl are in the field of his pro-fessional and spiritual interests: they are either civil servants, like Dahl himself, or clergymen. At the same time, Dahl's own professional interests played an important role in selecting the names for the «Notebook»: medicine, ethnography, Slavic studies, etc. In this sense, Dahl's Dictionary in its original form is partly autobiographical. The largest group of writers included in the «Notebook» are clergymen: bishops, and sometimes ordinary priests having their works published. Of the 39 names presented in the «Notebook», 17, that is, almost half, are the names of priests. The structure of the dictionary entries and the principles of Dahl's work on them are analyzed: he selected the au-thor, whose biographical article had recently been published, first retold this article in his own words, emphasizing cer-tain points, sometimes adding a certain degree of artistic expression to them; then largely expanded the bibliographical section of the entry, turning to existing reference books by A. Smirdin and D. Olkhin. Apparently, Dahl wanted to con-tinue his compiling work, but he was distracted by other plans.