Grigor Ajemyan

Grigor Gurgeni Ajemyan was born in Yerevan in 1933. He has a scientific education, but, since the death of his father Gurgen Mahari, has devoted himself exclusively to literature. He earned a doctorate in Armenian philology from Yerevan State University with a thesis entitled "Gurgen Mahari's Lyric Poetry." He took a direct hand in preparing the third, fourth, and fifth volumes of Mahari's Works for publication, and has published better than sixty critical essays and articles on Mahari's literary work. Among his recent publications are a variorum edition of Mahari's Burning Gardens (for references to an English translation of excerpts from this novel, see G.M. Goshgarian); a selection of Mahari's verse, Anantznagan; and two extensively annotated supplementary volumes, for which he has also written introductions, to Mahari's five-volume Works: Yerkidzank yev humor (Satire and humor) and Ardamedyan kisherner (Unpublished and fugitive texts, 1917-1920). He has prepared further volumes of material from Mahari's Nachlass that are still awaiting publication: a two-volume edition of correspondence containing 830 letters and 2,700 annotations; a two-volume collection of essays, articles, sketches, and reviews, with more than 2,600 annotations; and a collection of Mahari's Siberian prose, poetry, and letters, Sibirian.

Ajemian is currently completing a bio-bibliography of Mahari's work, G. Maharu Gensamadenakidutyune.