Shevchenko Book Announced

A major Shevchenko book will be published,  according to President Andrew Gregorovich of the Taras Shevchenko Museum in Toronto. It will celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of the great poet Taras Shevchenko on March 9, 2014.  The project, started in 2010, will result in a book with a selection of fifty poems in Ukrainian, English and French.

The museum, founded in 1952, is unique as the only Taras Shevchenko Museum in the Americas. It has a fine collection of Ukrainian art and a very valuable Shevchenko Library. It includes the world’s first Shevchenko internet site (www.infoukes.com/shevchenkomuseum) established by Mr. Gregorovich. The museum is located on 1614 Bloor Street West in Toronto and, is open week days.

Canada has created more Shevchenkiana than any other English speaking country. Translators include C.H. Andrusyshen & W. Kirkconnell, A.J. Hunter, John Weir, Honore Ewach, Florence Randal Livesay, and Mary Skrypnyk, Also the scholarly works on Shevchenko by Prof. George Luckyj of the University of Toronto are a valuable resource in English.

The book KOBZAR (Minstrel in Ukrainian), will be a hard bound deluxe edition with gold stamping. Among the poems included are Dumy Moyi, Hamaliya, Dumka, Subotiv and Ivan Pidkova. A facsimile of Zapovit  (Testimony), a great Shevchenko poem translated into almost  150 languages of the world, will be included. It shows Shevchenko was a dedicated Ukrainian patriot.

Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) established the beauty of the modern Ukrainian literary language. Shevchenko was not only a genius as a poet; he was also a talented artist who painted portraits as his profession. The book will include 16 color pages of paintings by Shevchenko including his self-portrait.

The Museum has invited everyone to help publish the book and the names and city of all contributors will be included in the book for a donation of $100 or more. You can be a proud contributor to this great book. A donation of $1,000 or more will be prominently acknowledged in the book. Address your donation to the Shevchenko Museum, 1614 Bloor St. W., Toronto  ON  Canada    M6P 1A7   Telephone 416 534-8662

“I am pleased to add my voice to those honoring the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. We honor him for his rich contribution to the culture not only of Ukraine, which he loved so well and described so eloquently, but of the world. His work is a noble part of our historical heritage.”

President John F. Kennedy

1961

“A century has passed since the death of Taras Shevchenko, the great Ukrainian poet, and it is most fitting that a monument in his honor is to be elected on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature. As a poet he not only enriched the literature of his people but inspired them with new hope for freedom. What he sought for them he sought no less for the oppressed everywhere in the world.”

John G. Diefenbaker

Prime Minister of Canada

1961