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In the article, against the backdrop of a general overview of the creative heritage of the writer-ethnographer
Sergey Maksimov (1831‒1901), the specific features of the writer's documentary prose related to its genre features,
the creative position and method of work of the ethnographer, the author's style of narration, and its stylistics are considered.
Proverbs, sayings, puns, and phraseological units form the cultural and speech background in Maksimov's prose, which is
so necessary in ethnographic sketches of folk life. Rare examples of folkish eloquence collected and presented on the pages
of the ethnographer's books are analysed, reflecting the close connections of the everyday life and work activities of
the Russian people with their rituals and poetry, as well as examples of folkish speech etiquette, to which Sergey Maksimov
devoted several essays addressed to children and the common reader. Vivid examples of folkish language creation are given.
The connection between Sergey Maksimov's creative aspirations and major changes and promising trends in the domestic
education system of the 1870s is emphasised. It is noted that the writer's prose did not so much depict people's life as
recreate the people's worldview.

For the first time, the article publishes archival materials related to the creative history of the memoir essays of the writer S.V. Maksimov about A.N. Ostrovsky "Literary Expedition" and "Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky". The time of the origin of the idea of memories is determined, the circumstances that accompanied the work of Maximov, their close connection with the memories of the founder of the oral story genre I.F. Gorbunov. Genre-forming techniques of Maximov's everyday writing prose, which bring the writer's books closer to his memoirs, are revealed. Feedback is also emphasized: in Maximov's memoirs, pictures of everyday life, the color of the era, descriptions of the environment, folk types and characters predominate. Maksimov's letters, in particular, to the Moscow collector and founder of the Theater Museum A.A. Bakhrushin. They contain a detailed commentary on the theatrical relics that Maximov sent Bakhrushin to Moscow: little-known details of the history of the Russian theater, the founder of which was Ostrovsky. It is concluded that Maximov's memoirs about Ostrovsky are presented not only in the textually designed essays "Literary Expedition" and "Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky", but also in rough sketches, letters, reference and bibliographic notes and in the results of Maximov's practical activities that contributed to perpetuating the memory of the playwright and popularizing the history of the national theater.

The article reproduces the creative history of the famous book "The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It. Letters" by St. Theophan (1877). Based on the materials of the letters of the bishop to various persons, the chronology of its creation and the author's principles for preparing the text are established. It is shown that the epistolary form, often used St. Theophan in his works, most fully met the goals and objectives of the author to give the general reader an accessible interpretation of complex theological issues. The results of the beneficial effects of the spiritual recommendations of St. Theophan to his correspondents.

The author of the article assesses the special editorial vision of Nikolay Nekrasov, from the first works of the future great writer who saw his sight in Leo Tolstoy, and in Nikolay Strakhov – a person close to literature, but who initially had the makings of a critic, not an artist of the word. The article notes the special merit of Nikolay Nekrasov in the discovery of new talents and support of novice writers, we analyse the manner and specificity of the first works of Leo Tolstoy and Nikolay Strakhov, sent to Nikolay Nekrasov's journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary). The author of the work turns to the origins of the literary path of the writer and critic, denotes their peculiar convergence in themes: both novice authors were strongly influenced by the sentimental tradition and were attentive to spiritual quests, but that at the same time explains the difference in the talent of Leo Tolstoy and Nikolay Strakhov, which manifested itself even in relation to their own first works of fiction, as can be judged by their letters to Nikolay Nekrasov.