Yessenin's Death

At Leningrad the notorious "imagist poet," Sergei Yessenin, onetime husband of famed danseuse Isadora Duncan, slashed his wrists with the gesture of suiciding Roman Caesars and hanged himself.

Comments upon M. Yessenin attributed to Mlle. Duncan in despatches--

On first meeting him: "He is the greatest poet since Pushkin."

During his courtship: "He is the greatest genius since Edgar Allan Poe."

At the time of their marriage in 1922: "Sergei is a man of spirit and a lofty soul. ... He is my in- spiration."

Following the yielding of Sergei to strong waters one night in Paris: "Only think! when I married him I was 37, and he was 27, and he seemed 17. ... He was a child until he took to drink. . . ."

After he had blackened her eye at a party in the Bronx: "It required five men to subdue him and bind him until he became sober."

When informed that he had been philandering openly in Berlin: "If it were only women I wouldn't mind so much, but Sergei's trouble really comes out of a bottle. ... It is hard for me to conduct my dancing school with Sergei always raising Cain. . . ."

On the departure of M. Yessenin for Moscow in the custody of two private detectives employed by his wife: "Everybody knows my husband is crazy. ... He is better off in Russia where he is loved even if he is foolish. ... He can smash things in Moscow and nobody cares because he is a poet."

When she allegedly divorced him in 1923: "My friends tell me that Sergei has been in jail for anti-Jewish utterances, but even in jail he contrived to remain permanently drunk. ... I experienced the greatest difficulty in trying to get a divorce, because the Soviet Divorce Commissariat closed every day at noon. ... It was impossible to get Sergei to arise and accompany me at such an hour. ... If the Commissariat had been open at midnight, he would have gone willingly. . . ."

Last year: "Sergei Yessenin has just written me that he has gone into the Caucasus to become a bandit. ... He writes that he is going to be a robber for the thrills. ... He wants to write poetry about robbery, and feels that he must gain experience as a bandit.

"Within the last few weeks: "I have no knowledge concerning reports that he has married Sofia Tolstoy, the granddaughter of Count Leo Tolstoy. . . . Sergei Yessenin is not like other men. . . ."

Upon learning of his death: "He was really still my husband. . . . One of his last poems was dedicated to me, 'To Isadora, alone worthy of being loved by a poet. . . .' He must have taken his life during a fit of passing madness. . . . Still, he had a distaste for this materialistic world. . . . His poems were about things like horses and clods of earth and revolutions. . . . My consolation is that they will survive his tragic death."