Prince Andre Orbeliani 1901-2001

updated 11/17/2011, correspondence added

Andre Orbeliani was the only child of Princess Mary Orbeliani and Prince Alexei Orbeliani (of Georgia). He was the nephew of Alexander Bulatovich, about whom I wrote the novel The Name of Hero. After having met his mother in Penticton, British Columbia, in 1972, I corresponded with Andre, trying to get more details about the life of his uncle. He and I never met face-to-face.

In the course of our correspondence he sent me copies of his self-published fiction and poetry, which he intended for me to post on the Web to reach a larger audience. I procrastinated, then he died (in 2001), then I misplaced the box in which I had stored them and his letters to me. I found the missing box last week (in November 2011). I will post here his fiction and poetry as .pdf images and his letters (some in English and some in French) which I will typed in.

A brief biography of him appears on the back cover of "Twenty Eight Gramms of Poetry", published in 1982. The photo (above) also appears on that back cover:

   "Andre Orbeliani is a retired mining engineer living in Nelson, B.C. He is 80 years old and this is his first book of poetry!
   "Andre was born in 1901 to a family of ancient Georgian nobility.   Gerogia in the Caucasus is a very old kingdom formed in the 3rd century. Georgian language is related to Celtic and the written form uses Sanskrit letters.
   "Andre's early life was spent in studies, travel and work throughout Russia, Yugoslavia, Belgium and Africa.
   "He arrived in Canada in 1951 and has lived happily here ever since with his wife Irene.
   "Andre is now hard at work on an historical novel set in the interior mining area of B.C.
    "What he likes best is 'Snow... always expecting the spring to come!'"

His wife, Irene, an artist, was the daughter of Barbara Rode, also an artist. Irene died about five years after Andre. They had no children.

Feedback and suggestions welcome.

Jeff Smeerkaas, a play in five acts (no date)

"In this play the author depicts the changing mood of people in an enemy occupied country. Belgium remained under German rule form June, 1940, to August, 1945. Belgians lived throughthe war and survived."

page 1 (summary)
page 2 (the characters)
page 3 (Act 1 Scene 1)
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Letters from Andre Orbeliani to Richard Seltzer:

January 29, 1977 (reaction to early draft of The Name of Hero)
March 9, 1981

Letter from Andre Orbeliani to Tom Dykstra (copy sent to Richard Seltzer):

November 15, 1987

Related works:

Ethiopia through Russian Eyes

Ethiopia through Russian Eyes consists of two books: From Entotto to the River Baro and With the Armies of Menelik II, both written by Alexander Bulatovich and translated by Richard Seltzer. This is a unique and detailed first-hand account of Ethiopia in 1896-98 -- at the change of an era -- by a Russian officer with remarkable understanding for the many varied people who lived there and keen insight into their destiny.

Africa World Press/Red Sea Press published a print edition of this book which you can buy from Amazon.com:

The full text is also available here on the Web:

Translator's Introduction
From Entotto to the River Baro (complete book, 400 Kbytes)
With the Armies of Menelik II . (complete book, 600 Kbyes) Photos from the original (1900) edition of the book
Review of Ethiopia through Russian Eyes, which appeared in African Studies Review
Review of Ethiopia through Russian Eyes, which appeared in The Journal of African History

"Despite its bland title, this is the most important book on the history of eastern Africa to have been published for a century." That's the beginning of a review of my book Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes (my translation from the Russian of From Entotto to the River Baro and With the Armies of Menelik II by Alexander Bulatovich) that just appeared in the August/Septemter 2008 issue of Old Africa (published in Kenya). I am waiting for them to post the article on their Web site http://www.oldafricamagazine.com/ and/or give me permission to post it on mine.

Brief biography of the reviewer, Cynthia Salvadori
Full text of "With the Armies of Menelik II", which the review focuses on. "Based on his [Bulatovich's] day-to-day diary, it is not only the sole but an astonishly vivid first-hand description of how Menelik II created his Ethiopian Empire," explains Cynthia Salvadori in her review.
"Another Kind of Hero" a review of Slaves and Ivory, Continued by Cynthia Salvadori

Articles and excerpts and links related to Bulatovich and Ethiopia

"The Serge Solovieff mystery: a WWI variant of the Spanish Prisoner" scam by Richard Seltzer
"From Russia to Ethiopia to the Internet" by Richard Seltzer
"Alternatives to Academic Publishers" by Richard Seltzer
London Times articles about Bulatovich (1913)
"A.X. Bulatovich -- Hussar, Explorer, Monk" by I.S. Katsnelson
Confidential letter from B. Chemerzin, Charge D'affaires of the Russian Embassy in Ethiopia to A. A. Neratov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs -- December 15, 1911
Email from the great-great grandson of Emperor Menelik II, and news of the fate of Vaska
"Hunting Man and Beast in Ethiopia" (excerpt)
"Even Elephants Pray" (excerpt)

The Name of Hero by Richard Seltzer

The Name of Hero is an historical novel based on the life of Alexander Bulatovich, a Russian who was an explorer in Ethiopia, a cavalry officer during Russia's conquest of Manchuria in 1900, and later, as a monk at Mount Athos, led a group of "heretics" who challenged the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, asserting the divinity of the Name of God. (Originally published by Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin). You can buy the hard cover edition of this book at Amazon:

The Name of Hero by Richard Seltzer. Hard cover.

Or you can read the text (in full) here on the Web:

Chapter 1 Railroads and religion
Chapter 2 Facts and Faith
Chapter 3 Love, Death, Life, and Other Minor Matters
Chapter 4 Between Proving and Believing
Chapter 5 Naming Names
Chapter 6 First Lessons in Love
Chapter 7 Hailar Taken Twice
Chapter 8 To Believe or Not to Believe
Chapter 9 Cross-Purposes
Chapter 10 Chinese Sonya
Chapter 11 A Clash of Cultures
Chapter 12 The Sour Taste of Revenge
Chapter 13 A Day of Triumph
Chapter 14 For Mine is the Kingdom
Chapter 15 The Knight Errant
Chapter 16 Luck Runs Out
Chapter 17 A Message for Strakhov
Chapter 18 The Not-so-Tender Touch of Death
Afterword

The Name of Man

Sample chapters from this unpublished novel (a sequel to The Name of Hero):

This site is published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. 617-469-2269 seltzer@samizdat.com

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Return to B&R Samizdat Express

Prince Andre Orbeliani 1901-2001

Twenty Eight Gramms of Poetry, 1982

Herr Luftinspektor, a Poem (in English, no date)

Lunaya Sonata (poem in Russian, 1967)

The Scarlet Lady (a novella, 1973)