Modern writers about wolves. Alexander Volkov

Adults love to keep pleasant memories from childhood. Some people remember carefree holidays, others dream of returning to school time. And we can confidently say that for many, such memories remain the hours spent reading the books of the writer Alexander Volkov, who gave the world the characters of “The Wizard of the Emerald City.” This work has become a landmark for Russian children's literature, but Alexander Melentyevich's bibliography includes many more worthy novels and stories.

Childhood and youth

The future children's writer was born on June 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in the family of a retired sergeant major. Literary talent manifested itself in little Alexander from childhood: the boy enjoyed writing short stories and fairy tales, and in his teens he even began writing a novel. Already at the age of 12, Volkov became a graduate of the city school, adding his name to the list of the best students.

Alexander Volkov in his youth with his sister Lyudmila and brother Mikhail

In 1907, Alexander entered the teacher's institute in the city of Tomsk and two years later received a diploma giving him the right to teach all school subjects, with the exception of the Law of God, which was included in the school curriculum at that time. Immediately after college, Volkov returned to his native Ust-Kamenogorsk and went to work at a school. Later, Alexander Melentyevich taught mathematics in one of the villages near Novosibirsk, and in the 1920s he moved to Yaroslavl, where he combined work with study, while simultaneously graduating from a pedagogical institute with a degree in mathematics.

Literature

Gradually, Alexander Melentyevich’s childhood passion for writing grew into his life’s work. In 1916, Volkov’s first works were published, and a couple of years later, the repertoires of provincial theaters were replenished with plays by him. However, serious recognition awaited the writer later, and it came thanks to the publication of the series of works “The Wizard of the Emerald City.”

Initially, Volkov did not plan to start his own fairy tale; the story of everyone’s favorite Scarecrow and his friends began with a translation of Lyman Frank Baum’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Alexander Melentyevich wanted to practice his English. However, the translation captured the writer so much that he first changed some of the storylines and then supplemented them with his own fiction.

In 1939, the first fairy tale from this series appeared, called “The Wizard of the Emerald City.” He himself approved the printing of the manuscript, and it ended up on the bookshelves. The Scarecrow, Goodwin, the girl Ellie, Toto, and the Brave Lion were loved by both children and adults; the book was literally disassembled into quotes. Now the work of Volkov himself was being translated: the book was published in a dozen foreign languages and reprinted countless times.

Screen adaptation of the fairy tale by Alexander Volkov

In 1968, a television play based on the work of Alexander Melentyevich was released, and in 1994, viewers saw a full-length film adaptation of the adventures of their favorite characters. The main roles in this film were played by Katya Mikhailovskaya,.

25 years after the release of the first book, Alexander Volkov returned to the heroes of “The Wizard of the Emerald City” and continued the fairy tale with a series of stories telling about the further fate of the characters. This is how the works “Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers”, “Seven Underground Kings”, “Fiery God of the Marrans”, “Yellow Fog” and “The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle” appeared.

The main characters and the themes that the writer raised remained common: sincere friendship, the victory of good over evil, the importance of mutual assistance and ingenuity. Another distinctive feature of the works of Alexander Melentyevich is the belief in the superiority of human knowledge over magic. Often the heroes of Volkov's books manage to overcome witchcraft with the help of technical inventions and ingenious inventions.

In addition, the writer’s bibliography contains stories dedicated to talented inventors, scientists and discoverers. Such, for example, is the story “The Wonderful Ball,” which tells about Dmitry Rakitin, who, while in prison, invented the first hot air balloon in Russia.

Alexander Volkov was also interested in the history of his native country. In the work “The Trace of the Stern,” the prose writer turns to the origins of shipbuilding and navigation, and in “The Captive of Constantinople” he explores the times of the reign of Tsarina in artistic form. By his own admission, Alexander Melentyevich wanted to interest children in science, a thirst for knowledge and a healthy curiosity about the structure of the world around them.

Among other things, Volkov continued to translate foreign literature into Russian. Thus, thanks to him, the works “The Danube Pilot” and “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition” were published in Russian.

Personal life

Personal life became both a happy and tragic page in Volkov’s biography. The writer met his beloved and future wife in his native Ust-Kamenogorsk. At the New Year's ball, the attention of young Alexander was attracted by the beautiful Kaleria Gubina, a dance and gymnastics teacher at the local gymnasium. The relationship between the young people developed rapidly, and two months later the lovers got married.

Alexander Volkov with his wife and children

A year later, the first child was born into the family of Alexander Melentyevich. The boy was named Vivian. Unfortunately, at the age of 5 the child died due to dysentery. The writer’s second son also did not live long: little Romuald was only 2 years old when he contracted croup and soon died.

These tragedies, which followed one after another, united Kaleria and Alexander. After some time, the couple found strength and decided to have another child. Fortunately, the son, named Vivian, like the firstborn, was born healthy. And a few years later, the writer and his wife gave birth to another boy, named Romuald.

Death

In the last years of his life, the writer’s health gradually weakened: age made itself felt. However, as Volkov admitted in an interview, he was happy. Children and adults bombarded Alexander Melentyevich with letters of gratitude and words of admiration. The prose writer kept these letters for years, at some point their number exceeded 10 thousand. Many asked Volkov to continue his favorite cycle of fairy tales, sent them their own ideas and illustrations, and also invited him to visit.

Alexander Volkov died on July 3, 1977. The writer was 86 years old. Alexander Melentyevich rests in the Moscow Kuntsevo cemetery. On the new monument erected at the grave of the prose writer in 2008, in addition to his photos, you can also see painted images of the heroes of “The Wizard of the Emerald City.”

After his death, books about the adventures of Ellie, Totoshka, the Scarecrow and other fairy-tale characters continued to be published, and the filmography based on Volkov’s works was expanded. In addition, sequels to The Wizard of Oz, written by other authors, began to appear. Thus, from the pen of Yuri Kuznetsov the story “Emerald Rain” appeared, and another writer, Sergei Sukhinov, gave children more than 20 books, creating the “Emerald City” series.

In 1986, one of the streets in the prose writer’s hometown received his name.

Bibliography

1939 - “The Wizard of the Emerald City”
1940 - “Wonderful Ball (First Aeronaut)”
1942 - “Invisible Fighters”
1946 - “Planes at War”
1960 - “Travelers in the Third Millennium”
1963 - “Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers”
1963 - “The Adventures of Two Friends in the Land of the Past”
1964 - “Seven Underground Kings”
1968 - “Fiery God of the Marrans”
1969 - “The Tsargrad Captive”
1970 - “Yellow Fog”
1976 - “The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle”

The books of the Soviet children's writer and teacher Alexander Melentyevich Volkov about the wonderful Magic Land, the Emerald City and the girl Ellie are familiar and loved by many. Only fairy tales that we read in childhood can be so loved - warmly and selflessly. What could be closer to the world of children's imagination than stories about exciting journeys to unknown countries, meetings with their formidable rulers, wonderful inhabitants, good wizards and evil sorcerers?

More than one generation of Soviet children grew up reading Volkov’s books. It was not for nothing that they sold out, they were snapped up instantly - the owner of a copy of “The Wizard” was the lucky one. In libraries, books were signed up in a queue, they were copied and redrawn by hand. Volkov’s series of books can be compared with other masterpieces of children’s literature in the fantasy genre - “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis, “The Hobbit” by J. R. Tolkien, “Alice in Wonderland” by L. Carroll, the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, the fantastic stories of J. Darella. How were these books created, written and published?

The beginning of the story

It all started in the 30s, when the shortage of children's literature was an acute issue in the USSR. “Kamchatka, the Far East, the Northern Territory require books for preschoolers. But what should we answer to the distant outskirts, when in Moscow and Leningrad children do not have a set of books essential for their development?- wrote A. M. Gorky. (Gorky M. Literature for children // Gorky M. About children's literature. Articles, statements, letters. M., 1968. P. 112-113)

To solve the problem, the world's first specialized publishing house, Detizdat, was created. The calls of A. M. Gorky and S. Ya. Marshak to write for children were heard from the pages of newspapers. And they found their recipient - a teacher at the Department of Higher Mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold, A. M. Volkov, a man of broad outlook and the father of two sons.

Alexander Volkov had already tried his hand at writing, and successfully - he was the author of plays for school productions, wrote poetry and translated, and also began his first historical story.

In the mid-30s, Volkov made an important decision, without which there would have been no “Wizard of the Emerald City” - namely, he decided to continue studying English. In this he was helped by a circle for teachers in his native Ministry of Tsvetmet, where participants were given copies of the fairy tale by the American writer Frank Lyman Baum “The Wise Man from Oz” as material for exercises.

Volkov liked the book so much that he read it to his sons Viva and Adik, who accepted it with delight. The fairy tale charmed the teacher “with its plot and some surprisingly cute characters.” He decided to translate “The Wise Man of Oz” into Russian, thoroughly reworking it. Volkov was so captivated by the translation that it was ready in just two weeks - according to various sources, the work lasted from December 6 to December 21 (or 26), 1936.

The young writer took the risk of sending his manuscript to the editor-in-chief of Detizdat N. Maksimova and the writer S. Ya. Marshak - and received their full approval. The Soviet teacher A. S. Makarenko also liked “The Wizard of the Emerald City.”

However, despite the success, Detizdat did not include books in its publishing plans. Various reasons were given: a shortage of paper, a desire to print only classic works, and not fairy tales.

Ultimately, after more than a year of ordeal, “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was lucky - the contract for its publication was signed on June 7, 1938 and “The machine started working! Artist, proofreaders, photographers, typists, typesetters, printers, bookbinders... And behind them - wallet workers, textile workers, etc. and so on. The great chain of human labor!- Alexander Melentievich wrote down in October 1939. (Archive of A.M. Volkov. Diary. Book 1. L. 108)

The illustrations for the book were drawn by the artist N. E. Radlov - they were black and white and suited the author quite well. It’s interesting that the editors themselves really loved the book: “It turns out that the editors are already becoming familiar with my heroes. They friendly call the Lion “Lyova”, the Scarecrow - “Stuffed Animal”.”. (Archive of A.M. Volkov. Diary. Book 1. L. 34). The manuscript was even kept in a green folder.

“The Wizard of the Emerald City” was published in September 1939 in a circulation of 25 thousand copies, and in December it was republished again – again in a quantity of 25 thousand.

The book was an incredible success among readers. Her heroes - the courageous, smart, kind girl Ellie, the smart and inventive Scarecrow, the kind Tin Woodman, the brave Lion, the little protector Totoshka - became close and understandable to children. The extraordinary success of the fairy tale predetermined its publication in 1941 in the “School Library” series with a circulation of 177 thousand copies. Thus, children throughout the country received as many as 227 thousand “Wizards”!

"The Wizard of the Emerald City" during the war and post-war years

The book arrived just in time - the Great Patriotic War began, and children needed good fairy tales more than ever.

“The whole class read The Wizard to the core. It was a surprisingly bright fairy tale. Going into it, we forgot about hunger, and about torn felt boots, and about the fact that notebooks had to be sewn together from old newspapers. Faith in goodness and justice was born in the soul.", - recalled writer Yuri Kachaev.

The book was kept as the most precious thing, taken with them during evacuation among the most necessary things, read in the subway during the bombings.

After the war, Volkov offered to republish the book again, but was refused. The declared struggle against cosmopolitanism and foreign influence in the state had a negative impact on the fate of the book. Still, the American flavor of history has not gone away, and the Motherland to which Ellie so dreamed of returning was the USA.

Only in the mid-50s did they start talking again about re-releasing The Wizard in the USSR. And at that moment a very important event for the book happened - namely, A. M. Volkov met the artist Leonid Viktorovich Vladimirsky, who became his friend and colleague for all subsequent years. He came to the writer in 1957, offering to illustrate “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, and at the same time publish the book in the new publishing house “Soviet Russia”.

By that time, Volkov had significantly revised the text of the story - he was influenced by the work on the play based on “The Wizard” for children's puppet theaters. The writer wanted: “Introduce a whole series of dialogues, using the play, to more clearly highlight the restless and assertive character of the Scarecrow, the sentimentality of the Woodcutter. An example of dialogue can be “Alice in Wonderland”. Fill the book with poems and songs, add a number of adventures". (Archive of A.M. Volkov. Diary. Book 3. L. 25)

Volkov gave Vladimirsky the revised manuscript, and Vladimirsky showed the writer his work. Both were very pleased with each other. Vladimirsky launched active negotiations with the publishing house.

In October 1957, he brought Volkov more drawings and he left an admiring response: “Here is an active artist! He interferes in the construction of the book, asks for rearrangements, and points out bad places. For the first time I meet an artist who treats his work with such love and diligence and for whom a book is as dear as his own creation.”. (Archive of A.M. Volkov. Diary. Book 10. L. 34-35)

The writer really liked the images of the fairy tale heroes created by Vladimirsky, especially the Scarecrow, who in the artist’s interpretation was close to Ellie’s age.

“In the 14 years that have passed since the first release of “The Wizard,” the image of the Scarecrow in L. Vladimirsky’s interpretation has become classic. His funny face with mischievous eyes and disheveled yellow hair looks out from millions of book pages flipped through by young readers in our country and far beyond its borders. And the Tin Woodman with a funny funnel on his head instead of a hat, with slightly awkward movements, a tireless desire to come to the aid of all those suffering and offended? And the good-natured Leo with a lush mane, a long tail and a tassel at the end, with which he, moved, wipes away his tears? All of these characters are also loved by young readers. What can we say about the guys, when even I, who have seen these “portraits” created by a good dozen Soviet and foreign artists, can only imagine them in the form in which L. Vladimirsky presented them”, - A.M. Volkov later recalled. (Volkov A. Union of word and brush // Children's literature. 1973. No. 8. P. 77-78)

As a result of the work done by the writer and artist, a completely new edition of the book was created. It is this edition that we know.

Updated version of "The Wizard of Oz"

How did the new text of “The Wizard” differ from the old, original one?

Firstly, the orphan Ellie finds parents - Kansas farmers John and Anna Smith, since Volkov did not want the girl to evoke a feeling of pity in the readers.

Secondly, Volkov made the fairy tale more logical, with more obvious cause-and-effect relationships. He was a mathematics teacher, after all, and besides, he believed that children are sensitive to logical errors.

Volkov introduced the plot core in the form of the “three wishes” motif. According to the prediction of the good sorceress Villina, in order to return home, Ellie must help three creatures achieve the fulfillment of their most cherished desires. So the Scarecrow should receive intelligence, the enchanted Tin Woodman - heart, and the Cowardly Lion - courage. Thus, Ellie’s actions acquire purposefulness, and the plot of the fairy tale and each episode become more thoughtful.

Thirdly, some new scenes were included in the fairy tale - for example, Gingema brewing a magic potion, summoning a hurricane, Villina opening a magic book, etc. The motives of the struggle for social justice, characteristic of Soviet society, are also reflected - this is how Ellie calls on the subjects of the evil fairy Bastinda to rebel against her power.

The new, revised “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was published at the end of 1959 with a circulation of 300 thousand copies and became a real event in literary life. Finally, newspapers and magazines started talking about the book, and publications followed one after another.

Since the 60s, the “triumphant march” of fairy tales began in the USSR and abroad. It was published in fairly large editions in Uzbekistan, Latvia, Armenia, Czechoslovakia, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus. It was republished several times in Russia, including in German translated by Steinmetz. His translation was first published in the GDR in 1969, and in 1970 the book appeared in Holland.

The appearance of the book caused a new, unprecedented phenomenon - children copied the book with their own hands and drew illustrations themselves. The writer received letters of appreciation from readers - from the smallest to the largest.

Wooden soldiers of Oorfene Deuce and the Seven Underground Kings

Alexander Melentyevich, meanwhile, managed to get acquainted with other books by F. Baum from the series about the magical land of Oz. He wanted to write a sequel about his favorite characters, based on the original. But unexpectedly I found Baum’s books not very good.

In them - “sucking stupid fables out of thin air and inventing a motley crowd of people and monsters - wooden, copper, rag, gingerbread, pumpkin-headed, etc. and so on. What nonsense! If I don’t restrain myself, like Baum, by certain literary boundaries, I can write six such “fairy tales” a year! This oziana is very, very weak, shoddy.”(Archive of A.M. Volkov. Diary. Book 10. L. 74-75).

Volkov decided to write a sequel, relying entirely on his own imagination. The idea for the plot came to him back in January 1958 - the “highlight” of the story should be living water, just like in ancient Russian fairy tales. There, however, the water revived those who had already lived before. Volkov came up with a “living powder” that could revive absolutely everything, including objects.

The writer sat down to write a new fairy tale on July 25, 1958 and worked until August 14. In June-July, Volkov finalized the fairy tale in Perm, when he was visiting his brother Anatoly - this is how the book “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” was born. The main villain in it is Oorfene Deuce (which means Oorfene the Envious) - a henchman of the deceased sorceress Gingema and an ordinary carpenter. Volkov did not choose this craft by chance - it was interesting to show the transformation of a hero with a purely peaceful profession into a militant aggressor, and besides, the writer himself loved to carpenter. A life-giving powder falls into the hands of Oorfene Deuce, with the help of which he creates an entire army of wooden soldiers and attacks the Emerald City. Ellie and her friend, one-legged sailor Charlie Black, save the city.

The fairy tale began to be published in 1962 in the newspaper “Pionerskaya Pravda” in an abridged version, and in 1963 it was published as a separate book in the publishing house “Soviet Russia” with a circulation of 300 thousand copies.

A year later, readers were waiting for the next book in the series - “Seven Underground Kings”. According to Volkov's original plan, there should have been 12 kings in the fairy tale, but the artist Vladimirsky advised reducing their number to seven - according to the number of colors of the rainbow. In this tale, soporific water appears, plunging a person into a months-long sleep, after which he wakes up completely renewed and devoid of everyday experience. Volkov replaced the sailor Charlie Black with the boy Fred Canning, Ellie’s cousin.

“Seven Underground Kings” continued the tradition of a social fairy tale started by “Three Fat Men” by Y. Olesha. A. M. Volkov wrote: “I posed in it big problems of a social and, so to speak, political-economic order, of course, in a form accessible to children. I don’t use the terms “exploitation”, “primitive accumulation”, etc., but, in essence, this is what we are talking about.”. (Archive of A.M. Volkov. Literary documents. T. 18). The social motive found its place in the following books in the series.

The book "Seven Underground Kings" was the last one in which Ellie appeared. According to the author, the girl grew up too much and could no longer be the main character. Through the lips of the queen of the field mice, Volkov closed the road to the Magic Land for her.

The tale was published in an abbreviated form by the magazine “Science and Life” in 1964. The book “Seven Underground Kings” was first published in 1967 with a circulation of 100 thousand copies.

New dangers and a new main character

Numerous letters from readers asking to continue the series could not leave the author indifferent. In addition, he himself managed to become attached to his favorite characters over the course of 30 years. Then Volkov introduced a new main character - Ellie's sister, Annie Smith.

In the book “The Fire God of the Marrans,” the main villain is Oorfene Deuce, who returned from exile. For his evil plans, he uses the backward people of the Marrans (Jumpers). Annie and her friend Tim come to the aid of the inhabitants of the conquered Magical Land.

The tale in an abbreviated form began to be published in 1968 in the magazine “Science and Life”, receiving a huge circulation of 3,300,000 copies.

“If only three people read each issue, then there will be ten million readers of the fairy tale. I can hardly comprehend the enormity of this figure. What are book circulations compared to this...", - wrote the delighted A.M. Volkov. (Archive of A.M. Volkov. Diary. Book 17. L. 216)

The fifth fairy tale, “Yellow Fog,” was conceived by Volkov in July 1968 and written in 24 days. In it, the enemy of the Magic Land becomes the sorceress Arachne, who awakens from an enchanted sleep five thousand years long. She sends a yellow fog to the Magic Land, which blocks the sunlight. People from beyond the mountains come to the rescue again - Annie, Tim and sailor Charlie. They build the huge iron giant Tilly-Willy and defeat the sorceress.

The fairy tale appeared in an abbreviated form in the same magazine “Science and Life” in 1970, and was published as a book only in 1974.

The last book in the series, written by A. M. Volkov, “The Secret of the Abandoned Castle,” is science fiction in nature. Her idea came to the writer back in 1968 - mysterious creatures appear in Gurricap Castle, kidnap children and play dirty tricks on the residents of the Magic Land. The mysterious creatures subsequently turned into aliens from the planet Rameria, who are divided into Menvits and Arzaks. The former, with the help of hypnosis, turned the latter into slavery. The Menvits want to capture not so much the Magic Land as the entire Planet. The fairy tale was written in July-August 1969, then finalized.

It was first published in 1971 under the title “Invasion of the Beak-nosed” in the newspaper “Friendly Guys”. Newspaper clippings were pasted into books and read not only by children, but also by adults. The space theme in the fairy tale cycle turned out to be more relevant than ever in the age of space, which began with the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

A separate book, “The Secret of the Abandoned Castle,” was published after the writer’s death in 1982.

Afterword

Six fairy tales by A.M. Volkov about the Emerald City were translated into many languages and published in a total circulation of several tens of millions of copies. They found their fans in the former USSR countries and abroad, including Germany and the USA.

Based on the books from the “Wizard of the Emerald City” series, hundreds of theater and puppet shows, filmstrip and film, puppet and cartoons were staged. And in 2013, the popular fairy-tale epic was translated into audiobook format for the first time: six famous fairy tales by Alexander Volkov were voiced by Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Alexey Borzunov. This work became a wonderful monument to the talent of a wonderful actor who passed away in the same year. And the new audio editions were decorated with such familiar and beloved illustrations by Leonid Vladimirsky.

Years of life: from 07/14/1891 to 07/03/1977

Soviet writer, playwright, translator.

Alexander Melentyevich Volkov was born on July 14, 1891 in Ust-Kamenogorsk in the family of a military sergeant major and a dressmaker. The future writer was not even four years old when his father taught him to read, and since then he has become an avid reader. At the age of 6, Volkov was immediately accepted into the second grade of the city school and at the age of 12 he graduated as the best student. At the end of World War I, he passed the final exams at the Semipalatinsk gymnasium, and then graduated from the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute. In 1910, after a preparatory course, he entered the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, from which he graduated in 1910 with the right to teach in city and higher primary schools. Alexander Volkov began working as a teacher in the ancient Altai city of Kolyvan, and then in his hometown of Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the school where he began his education. There he independently mastered the German and French languages.

On the eve of the revolution, Volkov tries out his pen. His first poems “Nothing makes me happy” and “Dreams” were published in 1917 in the newspaper “Siberian Light”. In 1917 - early 1918, he was a member of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Soviet of Deputies and participated in the publication of the newspaper “Friend of the People.” Volkov, like many “old regime” intellectuals, did not immediately accept the October Revolution. But an inexhaustible faith in a bright future captures him, and together with everyone else he participates in building a new life, teaches people and learns himself. He teaches at the pedagogical courses that are opening in Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the pedagogical college. At this time he wrote a number of plays for children's theater. His funny comedies and plays “Eagle Beak”, “In a Deaf Corner”, “Village School”, “Tolya the Pioneer”, “Fern Flower”, “Home Teacher”, “Comrade from the Center” (“Modern Inspector”) and “ Trading House Schneersohn and Co. was performed with great success on the stages of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Yaroslavl.

In the 20s, Volkov moved to Yaroslavl to become a school director. In parallel with this, he is taking exams as an external student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Pedagogical Institute. In 1929, Alexander Volkov moved to Moscow, where he worked as the head of the educational department of the workers' faculty. By the time he entered Moscow State University, he was already a forty-year-old married man, the father of two children. There, in seven months, he completed the entire five-year course of the Faculty of Mathematics, after which for twenty years he was a teacher of higher mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. There he taught an elective course in literature for students, continued to expand his knowledge of literature, history, geography, astronomy, and was actively involved in translations.

Later, in his fifties, Alexander Melentyevich brilliantly graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics at Moscow University in just 7 months. And soon he becomes a teacher of higher mathematics at one of the Moscow universities. And here the most unexpected turn in the life of Alexander Melentyevich takes place. It all started with the fact that he, a great connoisseur of foreign languages, decided to study English. And for practice, I tried to translate the fairy tale by the American writer Frank Baum “The Wise Man from the Land of Oz.” He liked the book. He began to retell it to his two sons. At the same time, redoing something, adding something. The girl began to be called Ellie. Totoshka, having found himself in the Magic Land, spoke. And the Sage from the Land of Oz acquired a name and title - the Great and Terrible Wizard Goodwin... Many other cute, funny, sometimes almost imperceptible changes appeared. And when the translation, or, more precisely, the retelling, was completed, it suddenly became clear that this was no longer quite Baum’s “The Sage.” The American fairy tale has become just a fairy tale. And her heroes spoke Russian as naturally and cheerfully as they had spoken English half a century before.

Samuel Yakovlevich Marshak, having become acquainted with the manuscript of “The Wizard”, and then with the translator, strongly advised him to take up literature professionally. Volkov heeded the advice. "The Wizard" was published in 1939.

The incredible success of Volkov’s cycle, which made the author a modern classic of children’s literature, largely delayed the “penetration” of F. Baum’s original works into the domestic market; nevertheless, with the exception of the first story, Volkov’s cycle is the fruit of his independent imagination.

In addition to works for children, Volkov is the author of other works. The historical works of Alexander Melentyevich were very popular in the country - “Two Brothers”, “Architects”, “Wanderings”, “The Tsargrad Captive”, the collection “The Wake of the Stern”, dedicated to the history of navigation, primitive times, the death of Atlantis and the discovery of America by the Vikings.

In addition, Alexander Volkov published several popular science books about nature, fishing, and the history of science. The most popular of them, “Earth and Sky” (1957), introducing children to the world of geography and astronomy, has gone through multiple reprints.

Volkov translated Jules Verne (“The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition” and “The Danube Pilot”), he wrote the fantastic stories “The Adventure of Two Friends in the Land of the Past” (1963, pamphlet), “Travelers in the Third Millennium” (1960), short stories and essays “Petya Ivanov’s Journey to an Extraterrestrial Station”, “In the Altai Mountains”, “Lapatin Bay”, “On the Buzhe River”, “Birthmark”, “Lucky Day”, “By the Fire”, story “And Lena Was Stained with Blood” ( 1975, unpublished?), and many other works.

As a child, there were few books in his father’s house, and from the age of 8, Sasha began to skillfully bind neighbor’s books, while having the opportunity to read them.

Even as a child I read Mayne Reed, Jules Verne and Dickens; Of the Russian writers I loved A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Nikitin.

Bibliography

Cycle The Wizard of the Emerald City
The first book was based on the American children's writer Lyman Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
(1939)
(1963)
(1964)
(1968)
(1970)
(1975, published 1982)

Popular science books
How to catch fish with a fishing rod. Notes of a Fisherman (1953)
Earth and Sky (1972)
In Search of Truth (1980)

Poetry
Nothing Makes Me Happy (1917)
Dreams (1917)
Red Army
Ballad about a Soviet pilot
Scouts
Young partisans
Motherland

Songs
Marching Komsomol
Song of the Timurites

Plays for children's theater
Eagle beak
In a remote corner
Village school
Tolya the Pioneer
Fern flower
Home teacher
Comrade from the center (Modern auditor)
Trading house Schneersohn and Co.

Radio plays (1941-1943)
The counselor goes to the front
Timurites
Patriots
Dead of night
Sweatshirt

Historical essays
Mathematics in military affairs
Glorious pages in the history of Russian artillery

Translations
Jules Verne, Danube Pilot
Jules Verne, The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsac Expedition

Film adaptations of works, theatrical productions

The Wizard of Oz:
1974 - Puppet cartoon (10 episodes), based on Volkov’s fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings”.
1994 - Film directed by Arsenov. The film has a star cast: Innocent and Innocent Jr., Pavlov, Varley, Shcherbakov, Kabo, Nosik.

Born on July 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in the family of a military sergeant major and a dressmaker. In the old fortress, little Sasha Volkov knew all the nooks and crannies. In his memoirs, he wrote: “I remember standing at the gates of the fortress, and the long barracks building was decorated with garlands of colored paper lanterns, rockets were flying high into the sky and scattering multi-colored balls there, fiery wheels were spinning with a hiss...” - this is how A.M. remembered. Volkov celebrating the coronation of Nikolai Romanov in Ust-Kamenogorsk in October 1894. He learned to read at the age of three, but there were few books in his father’s house, and from the age of 8, Sasha began to masterfully bind neighbors’ books, while still having the opportunity to read them. Already at this age I read Mine Reid, Jules Verne and Dickens; Of the Russian writers I loved A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Nikitin. In elementary school I studied only with excellent marks, moving from class to class only with awards. At the age of 6, Volkov was immediately accepted into the second grade of the city school, and at the age of 12 he graduated as the best student. In 1910, after a preparatory course, he entered the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, from which he graduated in 1910 with the right to teach in city and higher primary schools. Alexander Volkov began working as a teacher in the ancient Altai city of Kolyvan, and then in his hometown of Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the school where he began his education. There he independently mastered the German and French languages.

This is where the most unexpected turn in the life of Alexander Melentyevich took place. It all started with the fact that he, a great connoisseur of foreign languages, decided to also learn English. As material for exercises, he was given the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. He read it, told it to his two sons, and decided to translate it. But in the end, the result was not a translation, but an arrangement of a book by an American author. The writer changed some things and added some things. For example, he came up with a meeting with a cannibal, a flood and other adventures. His dog Toto started talking, the girl began to be called Ellie, and the Sage from the Land of Oz acquired a name and title - the Great and Terrible Wizard Goodwin... Many other cute, funny, sometimes almost imperceptible changes appeared. And when the translation, or, more precisely, the retelling, was completed, it suddenly became clear that this was no longer quite Baum’s “The Sage.” The American fairy tale has become just a fairy tale. And her heroes spoke Russian as naturally and cheerfully as they had spoken English half a century before. Alexander Volkov worked on the manuscript for a year and entitled it “The Wizard of the Emerald City” with the subtitle “Reworkings of a fairy tale by the American writer Frank Baum.” The manuscript was sent to the famous children's writer S. Ya. Marshak, who approved it and handed it over to the publishing house, strongly advising Volkov to take up literature professionally.

Black and white illustrations for the text were made by artist Nikolai Radlov. The book was published in a circulation of twenty-five thousand copies in 1939 and immediately won the sympathy of readers. At the end of the same year, its re-edition appeared, and soon it became part of the so-called “school series”, the circulation of which was 170 thousand copies. Since 1941, Volkov became a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.

During the war, Alexander Volkov wrote the books “Invisible Fighters” (1942, about mathematics in artillery and aviation) and “Planes at War” (1946). The creation of these works is closely connected with Kazakhstan: from November 1941 to October 1943, the writer lived and worked in Alma-Ata. Here he wrote a series of radio plays on a military-patriotic theme: “Counselor Goes to the Front”, “Timurovites”, “Patriots”, “Dead of Night”, “Sweatshirt” and others, historical essays: “Mathematics in Military Affairs”, “Glorious Pages” on the history of Russian artillery”, poems: “The Red Army”, “The Ballad of the Soviet Pilot”, “Scouts”, “Young Partisans”, “Motherland”, songs: “Marching Komsomol”, “Song of the Timurites”. He wrote a lot for newspapers and radio, some of the songs he wrote were set to music by composers D. Gershfeld and O. Sandler.

In 1959, Alexander Melentyevich Volkov met the aspiring artist Leonid Vladimirsky, and “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was published with new illustrations, which were later recognized as classics. The book fell into the hands of the post-war generation in the early 60s, already in a revised form, and since then it has been constantly republished, enjoying constant success. And young readers again set off on a journey along the road paved with yellow brick...

The creative collaboration between Volkov and Vladimirsky turned out to be long-lasting and very fruitful. Working side by side for twenty years, they practically became co-authors of books - sequels to The Wizard. L. Vladimirsky became the “court artist” of the Emerald City, created by Volkov. He illustrated all five Wizard sequels.

The incredible success of Volkov’s cycle, which made the author a modern classic of children’s literature, largely delayed the “penetration” of F. Baum’s original works into the domestic market, despite the fact that subsequent books were no longer directly connected with F. Baum, only occasionally appearing in them partial borrowings and alterations.

"The Wizard of the Emerald City" caused a large flow of letters to the author from his young readers. The children persistently demanded that the writer continue the fairy tale about the adventures of the kind little girl Ellie and her faithful friends - the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the funny dog Totoshka. Volkov responded to letters of similar content with the books “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings.” But reader letters continued to come with requests to continue the story. Alexander Melentyevich was forced to answer his “pushy” readers: “Many guys ask me to write more fairy tales about Ellie and her friends. I will answer this: there will be no more fairy tales about Ellie...” And the flow of letters with persistent requests to continue the fairy tales did not decrease. And the good wizard heeded the requests of his young fans. He wrote three more fairy tales - “The Fire God of the Marrans”, “The Yellow Fog” and “The Secret of the Abandoned Castle”. All six fairy tales about the Emerald City have been translated into many languages of the world with a total circulation of several tens of millions of copies.

Based on “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” the writer in 1940 wrote a play of the same name, which was staged in puppet theaters in Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities. In the sixties, A.M. Volkov created a version of the play for theaters for young spectators. In 1968 and subsequent years, according to a new script, “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was staged by numerous theaters across the country. The play “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” was performed in puppet theaters under the titles “Oorfene Deuce”, “The Defeated Oorfene Deuce” and “Heart, Mind and Courage”. In 1973, the Ekran association produced a ten-episode puppet film based on A. M. Volkov’s fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings,” which was shown several times on All-Union Television. Even earlier, the Moscow Filmstrip Studio created filmstrips based on the fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City” and “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers.”

In the publication of A. M. Volkov’s second book, “The Wonderful Ball,” which the author in its original versions called “The First Aeronaut,” Anton Semenovich Makarenko, who had just moved to live in Moscow, completely devoted himself to scientific and literary work, took a large part. “The Wonderful Ball” is a historical novel about the first Russian balloonist. The impetus for its writing was a short story with a tragic ending, found by the author in an ancient chronicle. Other historical works by Alexander Melentyevich Volkov were no less popular in the country - “Two Brothers”, “Architects”, “Wanderings”, “The Tsargrad Captive”, the collection “The Wake of the Stern” (1960), dedicated to the history of navigation, primitive times, death Atlantis and the discovery of America by the Vikings.

Volkov translated Jules Verne (“The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition” and “The Danube Pilot”), he wrote the fantastic stories “The Adventure of Two Friends in the Land of the Past” (1963, pamphlet), “Travelers in the Third Millennium” (1960), short stories and essays “Petya Ivanov’s Journey to an Extraterrestrial Station”, “In the Altai Mountains”, “Lopatinsky Bay”, “On the Buzhe River”, “Birthmark”, “Lucky Day”, “By the Fire”, the story “And Lena was stained with blood...” (1973), and many other works.

But his books about the Magic Land are tirelessly republished in large editions, delighting new generations of young readers... In our country, this cycle became so popular that in the 90s its sequels began to be created. This was started by Yuri Kuznetsov, who decided to continue the epic and wrote a new story - “Emerald Rain” (1992). Children's writer Sergei Sukhinov, since 1997, has published more than 20 books in the “Emerald City” series. In 1996, Leonid Vladimirsky, an illustrator of books by A. Volkov and A. Tolstoy, connected his two favorite characters in the book “Pinocchio in the Emerald City.”

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Biography, life story of Volkov Alexander Melentyevich

Volkov Alexander Melentievich - Russian writer, translator.

Childhood

Alexander Melentyevich Volkov was born on June 14, 1891. His place of birth is the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. Alexander's father's name was Melenty Mikhailovich, he was a retired sergeant major.

Volkov’s passion for literature manifested itself in early childhood. At the age of 4, thanks to the efforts of his father, Alexander already knew how to read. Since then, books have become his faithful companions.

At the age of 6, Alexander began studying at the city school, and he was immediately accepted into the second grade. And at the age of 12, Volkov had already graduated from this educational institution.

Education, teaching

The year 1907 was marked for Alexander Volkov by entering the Tomsk Teachers' Institute. In 1910, having received a degree in mathematics, he worked for some time as a teacher in the village of Kolyvan (Altai Territory). A little later, he worked as a teacher in his native school in Ust-Kamenogorsk. At this time, Volkov independently mastered the German and French languages to perfection.

In the 20s of the 20th century, Volkov moved to the city of Yaroslavl, where he took up the post of school director, while simultaneously studying at the correspondence department of the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute.

Alexander Melentyevich arrived in Moscow in 1929. There they began to work as the head of the academic department of the working faculty. For seven months (instead of the required five years) he studied at Moscow University. By this time, Volkov was already married and had two sons.

In 1931, Alexander Volkov became a teacher and then an associate professor at the Department of Higher Mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold.

CONTINUED BELOW

Volkov - poet and writer

Volkov’s first poems (“Dreams”, “Nothing Makes Me Happy”) were published in the newspaper “Siberian Light” in 1917. Immediately after the October Revolution, Alexander Melentyevich wrote many plays for the children's theater - “Village School”, “In a Deaf Corner”, “Fern Flower” and others. Productions based on his works were very warmly received by the audience.

As a teacher at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold, Volkov decided to master the English language. To do this, Alexander Melentievich read a book by Lyman Frank Baum entitled “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Remaining impressed by what he read, Volkov tried to translate the fairy tale story into Russian. In the process of work, the Russian writer changed many aspects of Baum’s story, added some points, so the result was not a translation, but a reworking of the book. As a result, the fairy tale “The Wizard of the Emerald City” came out of Volkov’s pen. Alexander Melentievich showed his manuscript to a famous children's writer. He noted that the manuscript was very good, sent it to the publishing house, and advised Volkov not to give up his literary studies.

“The Wizard of the Emerald City” immediately became popular among readers. The success of this book encouraged Volkov to continue writing. His talent allowed him to become a member of the USSR Writers' Union in 1941.

Throughout his life, Alexander Melentyevich wrote more than 50 works, among which were poems, popular science books, historical essays, novels, plays, and stories...

Death

Volkov Alexander Melentyevich died in Moscow in 1977 on July 3 at the age of 86 years. A street in his hometown of Ust-Kamenogorsk is named in his honor.