This summer a student of Russian literature who is studying in Venice, Italy contacted me. She wanted information about Regina. The subject of her research, author Boris Pil'njak, apparently was infatuated with Regina. Pil'njak wrote a letter on October 3, 1931 to his American interpreter, Joseph Freeman, which contained the following quote: "Phone Ella Winter and get her to track down the black Regina. And when will Regina come to the USSR? Bring her with you! tell her if she comes, I'll marry her, seriously, I mean it, I love Regina very much...Come! Bring Regina!" Tragically, Pil'njak was executed in Russia in 1938 after being accused of being a counter-revolutionary.