Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment Annotated and Illustrated Edition by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In 1865, Dostoevsky was heavily in debt, having taken on his brother Mikhail's debts after he died and amassing his own through gambling. Desperate, he signed an agreement with bookseller F. T. Stellovsky, promising that if he did not hand Stellovsky a manuscript by November 1, 1866, Stellovsky would be given the rights to all Dostoevsky's past and future works. Having done this, he fled abroad to escape his creditors in July of 1865.