A.M. Gorky Memorial Museum was opened in 1971, in the house where the writer lived with his family, renting the rooms of the second floor. This was the last A.M. Gorky's apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. In the rooms there has been preserved the original furniture. The inner design was recreated according to the recollections of E.P. Peshkova, the writer's wife, who had saved and then passed to the museum belongings from Gorky's apartment. The writer's contemporaries noted that his flat immediately became " a club, headquarters and a centre of the cultural and social life of the city". At that time Gorky was an outstanding representative of the Russian culture. By 1902 A.M. Gorky had created more than 50 literary works, that had been published in 16 languages. In the beginning of the century some of them were translated into English: in Great Britain - novels "Foma Gordeev" and "The Three", play "At the Bottom", about 20 short stories; in the USA - novel "Foma Gordeev" (in that publication pictures of Nizhny Novgorod by M.P. Dmitriev were used), play "At the Bottom", 20 short stories. During the period of time when Gorky occupied this apartment there appeared more than 100 books about him written by Russian and foreign authors, in 1902 only the central press published 260 newspaper and 60 magazine articles about the writer's personality and his creative work. In this house he wrote the philosophical poem "The Man", started his work on the novel "Mother" and the play "Summer Residents", introduced final corrections into the play "At the Bottom". The writer's apartment was called by his contemporaries "The Gorky's Academy". The place was always loud and crowded with people. A.M. Gorky often met guests from Moscow and St. Petersburg, among them: men of letters of L. Andreev, N; Garin-Mikhailovsky, E. Chirikov, S:' Petrov (Skitalets), directors and actors M. Narokov, L. Sulerzhitsky, A. Tikhomirov, sculptor I. Gintsburg, artist S. Sorin, pianist A. Goldenveizer. In 'august 1903 F.I. Shalyapin came on tour in Nizhny Novgorod, and stayed at A.M. Gorky's for 3 weeks. After his performances Shalyapin sang in the large dining room before the writer's guests. In the "Shalyapin" rooms are exhibited personal things of the singer, given to the museum by his daughter I.F. Shalyapin. While in Nizhny Novgorod Gorky began to collect books for his first library. It's hard to find such a field of knowledge that wouldn't reflected in it. Almost 1000 books from the private collection were donated to the Nizhny Novgorod public library. Part of them is exhibited in the Gorky's study. English classical literature is represented by works of Shakespeare, Shelly, Jerom K. Jerom, Wells. These books were translated into Russian and published in St. Petersburg in the beginning of the century. The library incorporates many works throwing light on the life in England in the end of the XIXth beginning of the XXth centuries (K. Hugo. "The newest trends in the English town management" SPb, 1897. M. Leclerk. "Education and Society in England" SPb, 1899. Gibbens & Saturin. "History of modem England" SPb, 1901; etc.). On the working table one can see the writer's personal things: ink-pot, pencils, pens, manuscripts, letters, three portraits - of his wife, son and A.P. Chekhov with Chekhov's signature.