/ world today news/ An eagerly awaited book by the “Sineva” publishing house – “Alen poppy samoten” – has been published. – a biography of Dimitar Blagoev by Mercia McDermott. On October 19 of this year, DUMA published excerpts from the then-prepared edition of the English historian and writer, who deeply connected her life. It turned out that prominent historians who worked with her in BAS and Sofia University, they know the biographies of the three notable Bulgarians that she wrote: Vasil Levski, Gotse Delchev and Yane Sandanski, they have not even heard of the fourth book in the series – the one about Blagoev.
And, as McDermott herself says, all four biographies are of “prominent Bulgarian revolutionaries, whose lives are subject to the principle summarized by Yane Sandanski: “To live means to fight. The slave for freedom, the free for perfection”. McDermott very much wanted the biography of the founder of the Bulgarian Communist Party to be published simultaneously in Great Britain and in Bulgaria, but it was published in England in 2014, and now for the first time it is becoming available to the Bulgarian public .
“Bulgaria is neither a rich nor a powerful country, but it has given the world gifts that are priceless: an alphabet that has turned darkness into light for countless millions, as well as a constellation of heroes and heroines who embody the best of humanity. thought and human aspirations. Among them, Dimitar Blagoev is certainly one of the greatest”. With these words, the author addresses the readers in her preface to the Bulgarian edition. For historians, Mercia McDermott’s writing will be undeniably interesting because of the detail of the facts of Blagoev’s life and the depth of the narrative. And the curious Bulgarians will be attracted by this remarkable work with the temperament of the narrative, with many unknown even for Bulgarians details of Blagoev’s personal, social and political life in the stormy times a century ago, with the references from past events to burning questions of our time, the answers to which and today they give rise to passions.
McDermott’s name is emblematic for generations of Bulgarians, she has been writing about our country for more than 60 years. She is a foreign member of the BAS, an honorary doctorate of the University of Sofia, an honorary citizen of Blagoevgrad and Karlovo, a recipient of the “Order of the Rose”, the orders “Cyril and Methodius of the second st. and the “Horseman of Madara”. And this year in connection on her 90th anniversary she was awarded the “Golden Age” award with a necklace. McDermott graduated in Russian philology in Oxford, first came to Bulgaria in 1947, returned here the following year and participated in the International Youth Brigade “Georgi Dimitrov” (today “Koprinka”) lived and worked in Bulgaria with short breaks. For many years he was the chairman of the Sofia University – the Bulgarian company with headquarters in London.
IC “Sineva”, known for the extremely serious books with which it enriches the Bulgarian literary life, this time presents to the readers an exceptional and valuable publication for Bulgaria. The translator of the book is Liliana Vanova. Unfortunately, Mercia McDermott no longer travels outside of England, but for November 30, when the municipality of Blagoevgrad organizes a presentation of her latest famous biography about Dyado Blagoev, the publishing house and Mercia have prepared a surprise that they are keeping secret for now.
A word
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