In April 1906, Czar Nicholas caved in to protests from around the world, and released Maxim Gorky from the prison into which he had thrown him. Mark Twain and other writers, hearing that the celebrated author of “The Lower Depths” had been freed, invited him to New York City, and Gorky, still harassed by the secret police, accepted. With him on the voyage was the actress Maria Andreyeva.
New York Times: The very brief friendship of Maxim Gorky and Mark Twain
An undated portrait shows Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, better known as Maxim Gorky, Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.
