The book is one in the series of reprints of the known biographical library of F.F. Pavlenkova, which was published in Russia at the turn of the century. It includes essays about the Russian artists, actors, and musicians: Fedor Volkov and Shchepkin (by A.A. Iartsev), Glinka, Dargomyzhskii, and Serov ( by S.A. Bazunov), Saltykov-Shchedrin (by S.N. Krivenko), and Lev Tolstoi (by E. Solov"ev).