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The collection consists of 124 letters from Count Leo Tolstoy and members of his family to Aylmer Maude, the English translator of his works. There are 69 letters from Count Leo Tolstoy, eighteen letters from Countess Tolstaia, eleven letters from Sergei Tolstoi (his son), 25 letters from his four daughters, Alexandra, Olga, Marya, and Tatiana, and one letter from Anna Konstantinovna Chertkova. The letters deal with such subjects as "What is art?", the "Resurrection" fund, Tolstoy's health, censorship, Ruskin, the banishment of the Dukhobors to Siberia, Tolstoy's doctrine of non-resistance, Jewish pogroms, famine in Russia, murder of Alexander II, etc. There are letters from the countess which reflect her feelings about the Chertkov's connection with Tolstoy and a letter from Sergei informing Maude that Tolstoy had left home to die, 1910. Subsequent letters deal with posthumous publications of Tolstoy's works.