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Мария Генриховна Визи
As one Harbin poet and journalist recalled, "Mary Vezey, slim Musia, American by father, Russian by mother, by-passed 'Churaevka/ She knew many of its members; she had attended the same school with many of them. Her family was well known in the city; everyone knew her father, the editor of the only American newspaper in the city. Musia, had she wished, could easily have caused a sensation, but she did not strive to publish or to recite her poetry, she was 'hiding/ and only a few had a chance to appreciate her musical, pure lyrics. Finally, she was talked into publishing a book of poetry. It came out in Harbin and was quickly sold out."
The collection was well received. Arsenii Nesmelov (Arsenii Ivanovich Mitropol'skii, 1889–1945), a most prominent older poet in Harbin, called Mary Vezey "an artist who has fully integrated the technique of Russian symbolism" and continued: "Those strings of Blok's lyre that sound like imitations of Gypsy songs or romances are still easily and eagerly understood by mass consumers of poetry. But Blok as a mystic, Blok as a poet, with his unique feeling for Russia, is disappearing, retreating further and further, and with each passing year becoming harder and harder to understand. That's why this book of poetry, addressed to Blok, and, moreover, written by an American, deserves special attention. The book is interesting in its orientation towards Russian symbolism. The poems to Blok are the best in the collection. (…) The entire book is an echo of Blok (…) though sometimes one can hear Akhmatova and Gumilev. As a student of Russian symbolism, the poet excels." Nesmelov, however, warned: "With her talent, which is definitely felt in some poems, the poet cannot for long follow this path that will inevitably lead her to a creative dead-end— Sooner or later she will have to pave her own way." He later inscribed an offprint of his poem "Cherez okean" (Across the Ocean): "To Mary Vezey — to a great poet. 25/XI/1931. Arsenii Nesmelov."
All her life she kept both the offprint and the envelope in which it was sent to her.