Naum Iosifovich Sagalovsky (born in 1935 in Kyiv) - poet, satirist, engineer by profession, graduated from the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute, emigrated to the USA in 1979, lives in Chicago, did not know Dovlatov before emigrating . Published in the newspapers “New American”, “Panorama”, “News”, magazines “Seven Days”, “22”, etc. Author of the poetry books “The Knight in Jewish Skin” (New York, “Dovlatov’s Publishing”, 1982), “The Singer’s Song Behind the Stage” (Chicago, “Renaissance Publishing”, 1988) and the collection “Demarche of Enthusiasts”, jointly with Vagrich Bakhchanyan and Sergei Dovlatov (Paris, “Syntax”, 1985). Letters from Sergei Dovlatov to Naum Sagalovsky are published for the first time, with small notes relating to overly sharp remarks addressed to living people. Some first and last names have been replaced by initials.