An outstanding writer who wrote stories for children. Interesting facts from the life of your favorite writers

There are many interesting facts associated with Russian poets and writers that shed light on this or that event. It seems to us that we know everything, or almost everything, about the lives of great writers, but there are pages unexplored!

So, for example, we learned that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was the initiator of the fatal duel and did everything possible to make it happen - it was a matter of honor for the poet... And Leo Tolstoy lost his house due to his addiction to gambling. And we also know how the great Anton Pavlovich loved to call his wife in correspondence - “the crocodile of my soul”... Read about these and other facts of Russian geniuses in our selection of “the most interesting facts from the life of Russian poets and writers.”

Russian writers came up with many new words: substance, thermometer ( Lomonosov), industry ( Karamzin), bungling ( Saltykov-Shchedrin), fade away ( Dostoevsky), mediocrity ( Northerner), exhausted ( Khlebnikov).

Pushkin was not handsome, unlike his wife Natalya Goncharova, who, in addition to everything, was 10 cm taller than her husband. For this reason, when attending balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife, so as not to once again draw the attention of others to this contrast.

During the period of courtship for your future wife Natalya Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and usually said: “I am delighted, I am fascinated, In short, I am enchanted!”

Korney Chukovsky- it is a nickname. The real name (according to available documents) of the most published children's writer in Russia is Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov. He was born in 1882 in Odessa out of wedlock, was recorded under his mother’s surname, and published his first article in 1901 under the pseudonym Korney Chukovsky.

Lev Tolstoy. In his youth, the future genius of Russian literature was quite passionate. Once, in a card game with his neighbor, the landowner Gorokhov, Leo Tolstoy lost the main building of his inherited estate - the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The neighbor dismantled the house and took it 35 miles away as a trophy. It is worth noting that this was not just a building - it was here that the writer was born and spent his childhood years, it was this house that he remembered warmly all his life and even wanted to buy it back, but for one reason or another he did not.

Famous Soviet writer And public figure burr, that is, did not pronounce the letters “r” and “l”. This happened in childhood when, while playing, he accidentally cut his tongue with a razor, and it became difficult for him to pronounce his name: Kirill. In 1934 he took the pseudonym Konstantin.

Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov were natives of Odessa, but met only in Moscow immediately before starting work on their first novel. Subsequently, the duo worked together so well that even Ilf’s daughter Alexandra, who is involved in popularizing the writers’ heritage, called herself the daughter of “Ilf and Petrov.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn communicated more than once with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. For example, Yeltsin asked his opinion about the Kuril Islands (Solzhenitsyn advised giving them to Japan). And in the mid-1990s, after Alexander Isaevich returned from emigration and restored his Russian citizenship, by order of Yeltsin, he was given the Sosnovka-2 state dacha in the Moscow region.

Chekhov sat down to write, dressed in full dress. Kuprin, on the contrary, he loved working completely naked.

When a Russian satirist-writer Arkady Averchenko during the First World War, he brought a story to one of the editors military theme, the censor deleted the phrase from it: “The sky was blue.” It turns out that from these words, enemy spies could guess that the matter was happening in the south.

The real name of the satirical writer Grigory Gorin There was Ofstein. When asked about the reason for choosing the pseudonym, Gorin replied that it was an abbreviation: “Grisha Ofshtein decided to change his nationality.”

Initially at the grave Gogol In the monastery cemetery there was a stone nicknamed Golgotha ​​because of its resemblance to Mount Jerusalem. When they decided to destroy the cemetery, during reburial in another place they decided to install a bust of Gogol on the grave. And that same stone was subsequently placed on Bulgakov’s grave by his wife. In this regard, the phrase is noteworthy Bulgakov, which he repeatedly addressed to Gogol during his lifetime: “Teacher, cover me with your overcoat.”

After the outbreak of World War II Marina Tsvetaeva They were sent for evacuation to the city of Elabuga, in Tatarstan. Boris Pasternak helped her pack her things. He brought a rope to tie up the suitcase, and, assuring of its strength, joked: “The rope will withstand everything, even if you hang yourself.” Subsequently, he was told that it was on her that Tsvetaeva hanged herself in Yelabuga.

The famous phrase “We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat,” which is used to express humanistic traditions Russian literature. The authorship of this expression is often attributed to Dostoevsky, but in fact the first person to say it was the French critic Eugene Vogüet, who discussed the origins of Dostoevsky’s work. Fyodor Mikhailovich himself cited this quote in a conversation with another French writer, who understood it as own words writer and published them in this light in his work.

As a remedy for a “big belly” A.P. Chekhov prescribed a milk diet to his obese patients. For a week, the unfortunate people had to eat nothing and extinguish attacks of hunger with hundred-gram doses of regular milk. Indeed, due to the fact that milk is quickly and well absorbed, a glass of the drink taken in the morning reduces appetite. So, without feeling hungry, you can hold out until lunch. This property of milk was used by Anton Pavlovich in his medical practice...

Dostoevsky made extensive use of the real topography of St. Petersburg in describing the places in his novel Crime and Punishment. As the writer admitted, he drew up the description of the courtyard in which Raskolnikov hides the things he stole from the pawnbroker’s apartment from personal experience - when one day, while walking around the city, Dostoevsky turned into a deserted courtyard to relieve himself.

Do you know what Pushkin received as a dowry for N.N. Goncharova bronze statue? Not the most convenient dowry! But back in the middle of the 18th century, Afanasy Abramovich Goncharov was one of richest people Russia. The sailing fabric produced at his Linen Factory was purchased for the British Navy, and the paper was considered the best in Russia. People came to the Linen Plant for feasts, hunts, and performances. better society, and in 1775 Catherine herself visited here.

In memory of this event, the Goncharovs bought bronze statue Empress, cast in Berlin. The order was delivered already under Paul, when it was dangerous to honor Catherine. And then there was no longer enough money to install the monument - Afanasy Nikolaevich Goncharov, Natalia Nikolaevna’s grandfather, who inherited a huge fortune, left his grandchildren debts and a disorganized household. He came up with the idea of ​​giving the statue to his granddaughter as a dowry.

The poet's ordeal with this statue is reflected in his letters. Pushkin calls her “copper grandmother” and tries to sell her to the State mint for remelting (scrap non-ferrous metals!). In the end, the statue was sold to the foundry of Franz Bard, apparently after the poet's death.

The bard sold the long-suffering statue to the Ekaterinoslav nobility, who erected a monument to the founder of their city on the Cathedral Square of Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). But when she finally got to the city named after her, the “copper grandmother” continued to travel, changing 3 pedestals, and after the fascist occupation she disappeared completely. Has “grandmother” found peace, or continues her movements around the world?

Main plot immortal work N.V. Gogol’s “The Inspector General” was suggested to the author by A.S. Pushkin. These great classics were good friends. Once Alexander Sergeevich told Nikolai Vasilyevich an interesting fact from the life of the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province. It was this incident that formed the basis of the work of Nikolai Gogol.

Throughout the time he was writing The Inspector General, Gogol often wrote to Pushkin about his work, told him what stage it was in, and also repeatedly announced that he wanted to quit it. However, Pushkin forbade him to do this, so “The Inspector General” was still completed.

By the way, Pushkin, who was present at the first reading of the play, was completely delighted with it.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in correspondence with his wife Olga Leonardovna, Knipper used standard compliments and kind words very unusual: “actress”, “dog”, “snake” and - feel the lyricism of the moment - “the crocodile of my soul”.

Alexander Griboyedov was not only a poet, but also a diplomat. In 1829, he died in Persia along with the entire diplomatic mission at the hands of religious fanatics. To atone for their guilt, the Persian delegation arrived in St. Petersburg with rich gifts, among which was the famous Shah diamond weighing 88.7 carats. Another purpose of the embassy's visit was to mitigate the indemnity imposed on Persia under the terms of the Turkmanchay Peace Treaty. Emperor Nicholas I went to meet the Persians halfway and said: “I consign the ill-fated Tehran incident to eternal oblivion!”

Lev Tolstoy was skeptical about his novels, including War and Peace. In 1871, he sent Fet a letter: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” An entry in his diary in 1908 reads: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”

The duel, in which Pushkin was mortally wounded, was not initiated by the poet. Pushkin sent a challenge to Dantes in November 1836, the impetus for which was the spread of anonymous lampoons exposing him as a cuckold. However, that duel was canceled thanks to the efforts of the poet’s friends and the proposal made by Dantes to Natalya Goncharova’s sister. But the conflict was not settled, the spread of jokes about Pushkin and his family continued, and then the poet sent Dantes’ adoptive father Heckern an extremely offensive letter in February 1837, knowing that this would entail a challenge from Dantes. And so it happened, and this duel became Pushkin’s last. By the way, Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin’s wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.

Having fallen ill, Chekhov sent a messenger to the pharmacy for castor oil capsules. The pharmacist sent him two large capsules, which Chekhov returned with the inscription “I am not a horse!” Having received the writer’s autograph, the pharmacist happily replaced them with normal capsules.

Passion Ivan Krylov there was food. Before dinner at a party, Krylov read two or three fables. After the praise, he waited for lunch. With the ease of a young man, despite all his obesity, he went to the dining room as soon as it was announced: “Dinner is served.” The Kyrgyz footman Emelyan tied a napkin under Krylov’s chin, spread the second one on his knees and stood behind the chair.

Krylov ate a huge plate of pies, three plates of fish soup, huge veal chops - a couple of plates, a fried turkey, which he called “Firebird”, and also a pickle: Nezhin cucumbers, lingonberries, cloudberries, plums, eating Antonov apples, like plums, finally began to eat Strasbourg pate, freshly prepared from the freshest butter, truffles and goose livers. After eating several plates, Krylov drank kvass, after which he washed down his food with two glasses of coffee with cream, into which you stick a spoon - it stands.

Writer V.V. Veresaev recalled that all the pleasure, all the bliss of life for Krylov lay in food. At one time he received invitations to small dinners with the Empress, about which he later spoke very unflatteringly because of the meager portions of the dishes served to the table. At one of these dinners, Krylov sat down at the table and, without greeting the hostess, began to eat. The poet who was present Zhukovsky exclaimed in surprise: “Stop it, let the queen at least treat you.” “What if he doesn’t serve you?” answered Krylov, without looking up from his plate. At dinner parties he usually ate a dish of pies, three or four plates of fish soup, several chops, roast turkey and a few "trifles." Arriving home, I ate it all in a bowl. sauerkraut and black bread.

By the way, everyone believed that the fabulist Krylov died of volvulus due to overeating. In fact, he died from double pneumonia.

Gogol had a passion for handicrafts. I knitted scarves, cut out dresses for my sisters, wove belts, and sewed scarves for myself for the summer.

Did you know that the typical Russian name Svetlana is only 200 years old? Before it was invented in 1802 by A.Kh. Vostokov, such a name did not exist. It first appeared in his romance “Svetlana and Mstislav”. Then it was fashionable to call literary heroes pseudo-Russian names. This is how Dobrada, Priyata, Miloslava appeared - purely literary, not listed in the calendar. That’s why they didn’t call children that.

Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky took the name for the heroine of his ballad from Vostokov’s romance. "Svetlana" became a very popular work. In the 60s and 70s of the 19th century, “Svetlana” stepped into the people from the pages of books. But in church books there was no such name! Therefore, girls were baptized as Photinia, Faina, or Lukerya, from Greek and Latin words meaning light. Interestingly, this name is very common in other languages: Italian Chiara, German and French Clara and Claire, Italian Lucia, Celtic Fiona, Tajik Ravshana, ancient Greek Faina - all mean: light, bright. Poets simply filled a linguistic niche!

After the October Revolution, a wave of new names swept over Russia. Svetlana was perceived as a patriotic, modern and understandable name. Even Stalin named his daughter that. And in 1943, this name finally made it into the calendar.

Another interesting fact: this name also had men's uniform-Svetlana and Svet. Demyan Poor Light named his son.

How many monuments to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin are there in the world? The answer to this question is contained in the book of the Voronezh postcard collector Valery Kononov. All over the world there are them - 270 . No literary figure has ever been awarded so many monuments. The book contains illustrations of one hundred of the best monuments to the poet. Among them are monuments of the era Tsarist Russia and Soviet times, monuments erected abroad. Pushkin himself was never abroad, but there are monuments to him in Cuba, India, Finland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Spain, China, Chile and Norway. There are two monuments each in Hungary and Germany (in Weimar and Dusseldorf). In the USA, one was staged in 1941 in Jackson, New Jersey, the other in 1970 in Monroe, New York. V. Kononov drew one pattern: monuments to Pushkin are usually erected not in large squares, but in parks and squares.

I.A. Krylov in everyday life he was very unkempt. His disheveled, unkempt hair, stained, wrinkled shirts and other signs of sloppiness caused ridicule from his acquaintances. One day the fabulist was invited to a masquerade. - How should I dress to remain unrecognized? - he asked a lady he knew. “Wash yourself, comb your hair, and no one will recognize you,” she answered.

Seven years before death Gogol in his will he warned: “I bequeath my body not to be buried until obvious signs of decomposition appear.” They did not listen to the writer, and when the remains were reburied in 1931, a skeleton with a skull turned to one side was found in the coffin. According to other data, the skull was completely absent.

The duels were quite diverse both in weapons and in form. For example, few people know that there was such an interesting form as the “quadruple duel”. In this type of duel, their seconds fired after the opponents.

By the way, the most famous quadruple duel was over the ballerina Avdotya Istomina: the opponents Zavadovsky and Sheremetev had to shoot first, and the seconds Griboyedov and Yakubovich - second. That time, Yakubovich shot Griboyedov in the palm of his left hand. It was from this wound that it was later possible to identify the corpse of Griboyedov, who was killed by religious fanatics during the destruction of the Russian embassy in Tehran.

An example of the wit of a fabulist Krylova serves famous case V Summer Garden where he liked to walk. Once he met a group of young people there. One of this company decided to make fun of the writer’s physique: “Look what a cloud is coming!” Krylov heard, but was not embarrassed. He looked at the sky and added sarcastically: “It’s really going to rain. That’s why the frogs started croaking.”

Nikolay Karamzin belongs to the briefest description of social life in Russia. When, during his trip to Europe, Russian emigrants asked Karamzin what was happening in his homeland, the writer answered with one word: “they are stealing.”

Leo Tolstoy the handwriting was terrible. Only his wife could understand everything that was written, who, according to literary researchers, rewrote his “War and Peace” several times. Perhaps Lev Nikolaevich simply wrote so quickly? The hypothesis is quite realistic, given the volume of his works.

Manuscripts Alexandra Pushkina always looked very beautiful. So beautiful that it is almost impossible to read the text. Vladimir Nabokov also had the most terrible handwriting, whose sketches and famous cards could only be read by his wife.

Sergei Yesenin had the most legible handwriting, for which his publishers thanked him more than once.

The source of the expression “No brainer” is a poem Mayakovsky(“It’s clear even to a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatskys’ story “The Country of Crimson Clouds”, and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). Students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they arrived at the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year the expression “no brainer” was very relevant.

Determination of Agnia Barto. She was always determined: she saw the goal - and forward, without swaying or retreating. This trait of hers appeared everywhere, in every little detail. Once upon a time in torn Civil War Spain, where Barto went to the International Congress for the Defense of Culture in 1937, where she saw firsthand what fascism was (congress meetings were held in the besieged, burning Madrid), and just before the bombing she went to buy castanets. The sky howls, the walls of the store bounce, and the writer makes a purchase! But the castanets are real, Spanish - for Agnia, who danced beautifully, this was an important souvenir. Alexei Tolstoy later asked Barto sarcastically: had she bought a fan in that store to fan herself during the next raids?..

One day Fyodor Chaliapin introduced his friend to the guests - Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin.“Meet, friends, Alexander Kuprin - the most sensitive nose in Russia.” Contemporaries even joked that Kuprin had something “of a big beast.” For example, many ladies were very offended by the writer when he actually sniffed them like a dog.

And once, a certain French perfumer, having heard from Kuprin a clear layout of the components of his new fragrance, exclaimed: “Such a rare gift and you are just a writer!” Kuprin often admired his colleagues incredibly precise definitions. For example, in an argument with Bunin and Chekhov, he won with one phrase: “Young girls smell like watermelon and fresh milk. And the old women, here in the south, use wormwood, chamomile, dry cornflowers and incense.”

Anna Akhmatova I composed my first poem at the age of 11. After re-reading it “with a fresh mind,” the girl realized that she needed to improve her art of versification. Which is what I began to actively do.

However, Anna's father did not appreciate her efforts and considered it a waste of time. That's why I banned the use real name- Gorenko. Anna decided to choose her great-grandmother’s maiden name, Akhmatova, as her pseudonym.

Childhood, of course, begins with an acquaintance with creativity popular writers. It is books that awaken in the child’s soul the desire for self-knowledge and an orientation towards the world as a whole. Famous children's writers are familiar to each of us from the very beginning. early years. A child, having barely learned to speak, already knows who Cheburashka is and the famous cat Matroskin is loved all over the world, the hero is charming and constantly comes up with something new. The article reviews the most famous children's writers and their works.

Benefits of these books

From time to time, even adults turn to reading children's fairy tales, stories and stories. We all sometimes want to witness a miracle, regardless of age or position.

It would be naive to believe that after receiving a diploma higher education a person changes radically. No, each of us still needs spiritual enrichment and understanding. Books can become such an “outlet”. Compare your feelings when you read news in a newspaper or read a work. In the second case, aesthetic pleasure from the process increases. Popular children's writers can even partially replace the warmth of communicating with a wise interlocutor.

Eduard Uspensky

The works of this writer cannot leave anyone indifferent. Any child will like Uncle Fyodor and his wonderful tailed friends and will delight him. Famous children's writers, such as these, are remembered forever; they cannot be forgotten even at an older age. Everyone’s favorite adventures of the three friends have a continuation: the books “New Orders in Prostokvashino” and “Uncle Fyodor’s Aunt” bring true joy.

Crocodile Gena and his friend Cheburashka also have a lot of fans. Despite the fact that modern heroes have now tried to supplant these characters, they still have their own circle of readers. Russian children's writers are known to be loved all over the world. IN Soviet cartoons the ideals of friendship and service to others can be found in the past. A sense of duty and selfless dedication were put in first place here.

Nikolay Nosov

Who doesn't know famous friends Kolya and Misha? It was they who once decided to hatch little chickens from the incubator and organized entertaining activities to brighten up their leisure time. They did all this with the greatest dedication and conscientiousness. Vitya Maleev is perhaps the most beloved hero. In his face, every domestic boy recognizes himself and his history. As children, we all don’t really want to do our homework. Nosov's characters always find a way out difficult situation, thinking about how best to act. Russian children's writers like him aim to identify what is necessary in every society.

Victor Dragunsky

Deniska Korablev - true friend childhood of every boy and girl 7-10 years old. The stories of Victor Dragunsky are incredibly interesting to read: they are filled with various adventures and life itself, which is literally in full swing. His characters come up with pranks and go on exciting adventures. The writer unobtrusively leads the reader to understanding true values. The heroes realize what irreparable consequences a lie can have, how to maintain friendship and why lessons still need to be learned. Favorite children's writers, of course, are known to everyone; Viktor Dragunsky deservedly belongs among them.

Alan Milne

Who doesn't know the so popular Winnie the Pooh? The bear cub is familiar to all children. Anyone who has seen the cartoon of the same name at least once will never forget the cheerful prankster and honey lover. Together with his friend Piglet, he plans pranks that inevitably lead to various unforeseen situations.

But few people know that Alan Milne wrote the work “Winnie the Pooh and All-All-All” for his little son Christopher, intending to teach him lessons of kindness and sincerity. The latter, by the way, became the prototype of the boy featured in the fairy tale.

Astrid Lindgren

The books of this wonderful book are loved and recognized all over the world. Writers of children's fairy tales can hardly compare with her work, which abounds in originality and complete free-thinking. It's worth at least remembering entertaining story about Pippi Longstocking, who was distinguished by her great intelligence and penchant for adventurous pranks. Her heroine, one way or another, evokes a feeling of interest and sympathy. She wants to help, monitor further events. The book tells that the girl was orphaned at an early age, but one can only envy the courage and bravery with which she embarks on dangerous adventures.

No less favorite character of Astrid Lindgren is Carlson. This cheerful prankster lives on the roof and sometimes surprises others with his appearance. In addition, he really loves jam and gets a little naughty. You have to have an extremely rich imagination to come up with such heroes. Neither Carlson nor Peppy can be called obedient. On the contrary, they overturn the usual understanding of things and form in the child an individual idea of ​​himself and the world in particular. Values ​​are not imposed or promoted here; the reader makes his own conclusions and comes to his own conclusions. Famous children's writers, which undoubtedly include Astrid Lindgren, form a child's primary sense of interest in literature. The Swedish writer opens up to the reader a bright world of magic, where you want to linger longer. Even when we are old enough, many of us periodically re-read her works.

Lewis Carroll

The work of this writer is not ignored by fans foreign fairy tale. "Alice in Wonderland" is one of the most mysterious works and equally obscure to the common man.

It has so many subtexts, meanings and meanings that at first glance it seems impossible to appreciate them. One of them is that even in Everyday life Each of us is surrounded by many mysteries and secrets that we must be able to discern. Opportunities are hidden everywhere, miracles actually happen. Popular children's writers like Carroll leave the mystery to the reader and are never in a hurry to give away the big secret.

Gianni Rodari

The Italian writer, who saw serving other people as the main purpose of his existence, created a very entertaining story. The onion family, known to all children, arouses deep interest in the works of this author. Cipollino and his friends treat each other extremely carefully and take pity on the poor convicts whom Prince Lemon put in prison. In this tale, the theme of freedom and the opportunity to have own opinion. Famous children's writers, to whom Gianni Rodari belongs, always teach goodness and justice. “Cipollino” is remembered precisely for its focus on understanding and consoling everyone who needs it.

Thus, the creativity of children's writers includes unique opportunity return for a moment to daylight, feel like a child again, remember simple joys that once surrounded us.

On March 31, 1882, Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky was born - Russian poet, literary critic, children's writer and journalist. The passion for children's literature, which made Chukovsky famous, began relatively late, when he was already a famous critic.
In 1916, Chukovsky compiled the collection “Yolka” and wrote his first fairy tale “Crocodile”. In 1923 it was published famous fairy tales"Moidodyr" and "Cockroach".

Charles Perrault

French poet and critic of the classical era, now known mainly as the author of Mother Goose Tales. Charles Perrault was the fourth most published foreign writer in the USSR for the years 1917-1987: the total circulation of his publications amounted to 60.798 million copies.

Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich

Marshak Samuil Yakovlevich

Mikhalkov Sergey Vladimirovich

Hans Christian Andersen

Agniya Barto

Nosov Nikolay Nikolaevich

Moshkovskaya Emma Efraimovna

Lunin Viktor Vladimirovich

Oseeva Valentina Aleksandrovna

Brothers Grimm

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

Alexey Nikolaevich Pleshcheev

Eduard Nikolaevich Uspensky

A boy who could turn into a vacuum cleaner, stories from the life of the Moscow Zoo, funny and stupid poems about school and other wonderful stories from modern children's writers

If you are not a regular at book sites and festivals, then it may seem that they still haven’t come up with anything better than Nosov, Rybakov and Bulychev for children. Meanwhile, children's literature in Russia is developing well. New books, competitions and authors appear every day. Journalist Lisa Birger chose 10 modern writers, whose books can be safely placed on bookshelf in the nursery.

SERGEY SEDOV

Sergei Sedov is one of those writers who fascinate when meeting in person no less than when meeting with his texts - such a real modern storyteller, a person not tied to space and time, former teacher and a Moscow janitor, whose fairy tales we started reading back in the 80s. I can’t count how many times these fairy tales - about the boy Lesha, about the frog Pipa, about kings, about fools - have been forgotten and published over the past thirty years, and still they sound stunningly new. Sedov has a wonderful style of light writing; it seems that everything he touches turns into an exciting game, which is impossible not to join. But the main thing about Sedov is the endless freedom of his imagination, completely childish in spirit, his signature oddity, thanks to which he can allow his heroes to amazingly transform into a vacuum cleaner and a balloon, and in his fairy tales about mothers he allows himself to show a drunkard mother and an indifferent mother . All of these are manifestations of the same touching concern, but in different ways. There was a time when Sedov was published a little more and better, but now, unfortunately, it’s not easy to find either his horror stories or a wonderfully funny retelling ancient greek myths"Hercules." 12 great feats. An eyewitness account,” not even his New Year’s tale “How Father Frost Was Born,” written in collaboration with Marina Moskvina. Nevertheless, “Tales about Lyosha” are always on sale - Sedov is classic in all respects, causing equal delight among parents and children.

MARIA BERSHADSKAYA

VGIK graduate and screenwriter Maria Bershadskaya, who worked, among other things, on Sesame Street, came up with and wrote probably the best children's series in modern Russian literature, the series of books “Big Little Girl”. Its heroine, Zhenya, is a seven-year-old girl, tall beyond her years (so tall that her mother has to stand on a stool to braid her hair), who remains, despite high growth, a small child inside. And each situation from Zhenya’s life is a separate story of growing up and internal growth, be it a story about death loved one, O school novel, about holidays and losses, about uncomfortable and in their own way tragic situations in which every child can find themselves. Brilliant invention- to see in one image how the children's world combines the extreme and the ordinary, the small and the big, the feeling of absolute insecurity in front of the world and daily victories over its obstacles. This situation of both fairy-tale detachment and realistic empathy, the author’s sympathy for the hero’s big and small sufferings is what makes Bershadskaya’s books so understandable and attractive.

STANISLAV VOSTOKOV

A great lover of animals, Stanislav Vostokov dreamed of following in the footsteps of Gerald Durrell since childhood - he dreamed and did. Already at the age of fifteen, he published his translations from Durrell in the Tashkent newspaper “Pioneer of the East” and, while studying at art school, drew elephants and cranes. From Tashkent he went to protect nature in Cambodia, and from there he did an internship at the International Conservation Training Center founded by Darrell on the island of Jersey. Afterwards he worked at the Moscow Zoo and at the Research Center for Nature Conservation, and talked about all this in his books. Although we fell in love with Vostokov precisely for the genre of stories about animals (see “Do not feed or tease” about the Moscow Zoo and the book “The Island Dressed in Jersey”), about which he knows how to speak simply, with understanding and sympathy, he has perfectly mastered and other genres, and to date has received every conceivable children's award. For example, for a book of stories about Frosya Korovina, “a real village woman of seven years old” from the village of Papanovo, Vologda region, or a series of airy ones, inspired more by Yuri Koval than by the masters village prose, stories about the village way of life “Godfather to the King”, and about birds and animals that can be seen almost from the window.

ARTHUR GIVARGIZOV

The aesthetic homeland of Arthur Givargizov is Soviet school prose, everything that is dear and beloved, from Nosov to Dragunsky. Only he feels much freer in both plots and language, so that some nervous parents scold him for being uneducational (parents who don’t understand jokes or demand that morality comes first in a children’s book are the main enemies of children’s prose). In fact, in light of the achievements of world child psychology, according to which what is important for children should be play, not textbooks, freedom of imagination, not cramming, Givargizov is exactly the writer needed to create an atmosphere of total laughter and fun. He never fails, and although many of his poems and stories seem like jokes, games, they important topic the search for freedom in any given situation invariably becomes, be it conversations with adults, school lessons or long journeys. If you don’t know that the Earth has gravity, you can take off and fly, and if you don’t want to write a dictation, then you can run away into the forest and instead of yourself, slip the teacher a bear and a wolf, so that they, quarreling and copying from each other like real hooligans, diligently deduce “Her voice rang and trembled like a cracked glass bell.”

Givargizov, fortunately, is published uninterruptedly, and all his books are very good - from him alone you can make an excellent home library. But it makes sense for parents not to miss, while they still have it, the book “From Grandfather’s to Children’s,” where linguist Maxim Krongauz discusses the stories and poems of Arthur Givargizov while reading them with his grandchildren.

TAMARA MIKHEEVA

Tamara Mikheeva is a professional children's writer. This means that she is equally good at picture books about animals and teen stories like Dolphin Children. These are invariably kind, invariably bright books, populated by wonderful magical creatures. In modern children's prose, Tamara Mikheeva plays the role of the main storyteller: living trees grow in her mountains (“Light Mountains”), magical gnomes live in her forests (“Asha’s Summer”), and her shumsa, the inhabitants of the trees, have become one of the best children’s science fiction TV series In general, impeccable stories for children who are just learning to read and love books, and parents who want these books to be only about magic and kindness - it’s as if no other world exists for Mikheeva at all.

MARINA AROMSHTAM

Until the mid-2000s, teacher, psychologist and specialist in children's reading Maria Aromshtam wrote educational books about pedagogy for adults and teaching aids for children beginning to read. But since her story “When Angels Rest” won the Cherished Dream Award in 2008, Aromstam has become not only one of our favorite writers, but also the main promoter of children's books. The Papmambook website, which she invented, exists precisely to help parents read books with their children. Over the past ten years, Marina Aromshtam has built up a solid bibliography and has already become a classic of modern literature. Moreover, I would like to use the word “classic” here for the unobtrusive instructiveness of her texts, for which we are accustomed to appreciating the books of our childhood, or better yet, for the freedom of thought and feeling that these books invariably promise. She feels equally confident in different topics and genres, be it a realistic story about school life(“When the Angels Rest”), a historical story from England of the 14th century (“Lancelot the Cat and the Golden City. Old English history"), fairy tales and myths about the birth of the world ("Once Upon a Time in a New World") or picture books for children ("Zheludenok"). Whatever she writes, it is always about the therapeutic effect of reading and storytelling - exactly what many ordered.

MARIA BOTEVA

The first book of fairy tales by Maria Boteva “Light ABC. Two Sisters, Two Winds" was published by the NLO publishing house in 2005 - at the same time it received the Triumph Award and was included in the short lists of Debut and Cherished Dream. We didn’t hear about her for quite a long time after that, until she was rediscovered by the KompasGid publishing house, and then it became clear that Boteva is, first of all, an accurate, faithful and attentive writer of teenage life. Two books of her stories, “Ice Cream in Waffle Cups” (2013) and “You Walk on the Carpet” (2016) are some kind of joyful acquisition for any children's library. Because the main theme here is not some exceptional sorrows of teenage life, but, on the contrary, the most recognizable things about it, conversations, feelings, daily experiences. So, in the new book “You Walk on the Carpet” the main characters drink tea, chatter tongue twisters, hang around doing nothing, but it is this “Summer is boring again, just a piece of melancholy” that becomes an incredibly rich plot for it. It's such a stunning, heartfelt insight into teenage life that it can help even an adult remember what it was like. To imagine why this is so good, just read.

ASIA PETROVA

A graduate of the Sorbonne, a wonderful translator from French, the wife of one of the best contemporary children's poets Mikhail Yasnov and, above all, a wonderful children's author. It is proven, if you like, even by literary awards - Petrova has a whole bunch of them, from the first “Kniguru” prize for the collection of stories “Wolves on Parachutes” and the Marshak Prize to the shortlists of “Debut” and “Baby-NOS”. The main thing in Asa Petrova, however, is the ability to speak with a teenager in his language, to immerse himself in the world of his experiences, where literally everything becomes an existential question - from the reluctance to put on leggings to the fear that the grandmother will die. Collection of stories “Wolves on parachutes. Adults Are Silent,” combining stories for middle schoolers and thoughtful and sympathetic prose about teenagers, represents everything beautiful, scary, sad, and absurd that ordinary teenage life is made of.

NINA DASHEVSKAYA

Writer Nina Dashevskaya has already received three literary prize“Kniguru”, despite the fact that she published her first story in 2011. A musician by training, she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in violin and now plays in the orchestra of the Theater. Natalia Sats. And her first books, including “Around Music,” were dedicated to the enormous change that the sound of music can make in life little man. This is generally main topic Dashevskaya's teenage prose is a way out of darkness into light, a magical change that is guaranteed to help get rid of loneliness and unhappiness. A sad boy will become cheerful, a lonely teenager will have friends, a child with ADHD will find understanding, everyone will be welcome happy end. Considering how simply and joyfully these books are written, it is not surprising that children - and adults too - enjoy them so much.

NATALIA EVDOKIMOVA

In some other world, where fantasy, for example, would not be considered a minor genre in literature, Natalya Evdokimova would become big literary star- it is difficult to find an author who would feel so free in this topic. Her dystopia "The End of the World" tells about a world that changes entirely from time to time. Its laws are strange, bizarre and sometimes even repressive, but the belief remains that one day some of the worlds will turn out to be the one you invented. The brand new book “Kimka & Company” tells about a boy who flew away from his parents staring at the TV into imaginary worlds, and travels through them, taking his newborn brother with him. And there is also a very simple, piercing intonation “Summer Smells of Salt”, whose teenage heroes break free to summer and the sea from the protracted winter and captivity of high-rise buildings. In general, this is a necessary injection of fantasy from boring and sometimes difficult everyday life - and just very good literature.

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Escaped Agatha Christie and spiritualist Conan Doyle

Have you ever wondered that two of England's greatest deductive minds lived and worked at the same time? Moreover, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an active participant search operation during the disappearance of Agatha Christie. In 1926, the writer’s husband asked her for a divorce, since he was already in love with someone else. This was a huge blow for the creator of the mustachioed Poirot. And she disappeared. Rumor has it that Christie wanted to commit suicide and fabricate evidence against her unfaithful husband.

And among the volunteers from all over the country who helped find the literary diva, Sir Conan Doyle himself turned out to be. True, all his help consisted in the fact that he took Agatha’s glove to a famous medium. You won’t believe it, but the man who invented the most pragmatic and atheistic character of all time was an ardent supporter and promoter of spiritualism, and simply believed in all otherworldly forces. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the medium did not help the search operation in any way, and the writer was found 10 days later in a small spa hotel outside the city, where she calmly registered under the name of a careless homewrecker and drank cocktails for the entire 10 days. By the way, no one knows when, how and why Agatha Christie ended up in that hotel. The writer herself claims that she had short-term amnesia. But we are girls, we guess...

Lord Byron or Casanova?

Byron's love affairs are legendary. Biographers clearly include in his biography the fact that once in one year of Venice, Byron had the good fortune of “communicating” with more than 250 ladies. And this despite the fact that the poet definitely limped and was extremely prone to being overweight. Moreover, the pride of all England had quite strange collection. He collected strands of hair from the most intimate places of his mistresses. The curls, and at that time there probably were some, were lovingly kept in envelopes, where the poet himself wrote out the names in his own hand: “Countess Guiccioli”, “Carolina Lamb”... In the 80s, to the great regret of literary scholars, the collection was lost and no trace of it has been found to this day por.

But the most common gossip revolves around George Byron's love for youths and animals. If the first is exactly what you thought, then the second is platonic love. In the poet’s personal mini-pet one could find crocodiles, badgers, horses, monkeys and many different animals. And the great English romantic poet became furious at the sight of an ordinary salt shaker. Rumor has it that such people were never present at the lavish festivities with the lord. The secret of such fierce aggression towards the salt shaker remained unsolved.

Papa Hem and his cats

Everyone has heard about the cat lover, alcoholic and suicide Hemingway. He really did suffer from a severe form of paranoia, he really did endure a number of sophisticated psychiatric techniques, and towards the end of his life he stopped writing. And when Hemingway died, American intelligence services confirmed what the great writer had been saying all his life - he was indeed being monitored.

But there is another side to the coin. The ideal man, life-fighter and womanizer, American dad Hem loved Cuban mojitos, beautiful journalists and honesty in everything. One day sipping a friendly cocktail another giant American literature, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, complained to Hemingway that his wife Zelda considered him " manhood"relatively small. To which the writer took him to the toilet, gave him a control check, and then reassured poor Fitzgerald that everything was fine. He already knew.

But as for cats, Hemingway’s favorite pet was Snowball, who has a small defect - six toes on soft paws. Now you can meet the descendants of Snowball, who continue to pay tribute to the genius of literature, and live in the house-museum of Uncle Hem in Florida.

Charlie and the Bax Factory

Being just a child, future pride England Charles Dickens had a very hard time. The writer's father ended up in debtor's prison, and little Charlie had to go to work, unfortunately, not at a chocolate factory, but at a real waxing factory, where the young talent had to stick labels on jars of polish all day long. No football with slingshots, no hulabud on a tree. That is why Dickens's images of unfortunate orphans were so realistic.

In general, one can write and write about the oddities of Charles John Dickens. The most famous of them says that the writer could not sit at the table or go to bed with his head not facing north. Charlie wrote his brilliant works in precisely this direction.

Legend has it that Dickens was an avid hypnotist and mesmerist (telepathic communication between humans and animals), and even went into trances at random. During this state, the writer fiddled with his hats, which very quickly wore out after the attacks. Later I even had to give up hats altogether. Well, among other things, the English prose writer’s favorite pastime was going to the morgue. Especially in those sections where unidentified bodies were exhibited. A wonderful time, I must say!

Antosha Chekhonte

A domestic example of a writer’s difficult childhood is everyone’s favorite Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, whose father ran a tailor’s shop and forced his youths to work in it. Little Anton managed to study and sing in the church choir, but he never saw his childhood.

Another extremely interesting fact about the great satirist: Chekhov kept more than 50 original pseudonyms in his arsenal: Champagne, My Brother’s Brother, The Man Without a Spleen, Arkhip Indeykin, and of course, Antosha Chekhonte - only part of Chekhov’s boundless imagination.

But Stanislavsky describes such a story in his memoirs. One day, while Anton Pavlovich was visiting him, a friend came to him. During the conversation, Chekhov was silent and only looked intently at the newcomer. When the guest left, the master of the short genre said: “Listen, he is a suicide,” to which Stanislavsky only laughed, because he had never met a more joyful, happy and optimistic person than this friend. Imagine the director’s amazement when a few years later the “cheerful” guest was poisoned.
And yet contemporaries describe Chekhov as the most kind person on the ground. WITH light hand Anton Pavlovich Chekhov Russia has become richer in schools, hospitals and shelters for those who have nowhere to go.

Coffee instead of sex

Once a thief broke into the apartment of a young, not yet very successful, writer. When he began to rummage through the drawers in the only chest of drawers in the apartment, he heard loud laughter behind him. Honore de Balzac, that was the name of the aspiring writer, loudly remarked that it was unlikely that a thief would be able to find money where he had not been able to find it himself for a long time.

The author's contemporaries claim that it was acute feeling humor helped Balzac survive in sorrows and poverty. Humor and coffee. The famous Frenchman could drink about 50 cups of extremely strong coffee per day. Someone even calculated that during the writing of The Human Comedy, Balzac drank 15,000 cups of aromatic liquor. And this is without the beans that the coffee lover loved to chew when it was not possible to brew his favorite drink.

And Honore de Balzac believed that sex is tantamount to one good novel. A man's seed, in his competent opinion, is nothing more than particles of brain tissue. After a night of love, he even bitterly admitted to one of his friends that he had probably lost a brilliant work.

From comet to comet

Another lover of pseudonyms, Mark Twain, came up with more than a dozen of them. And “Mark Twain” itself meant “by the mark twain,” that is, the safe immersion of a ship in two fathoms. In his youth, the creator of Tom Sawyer worked for a long time on a ship somewhere in the waters of the Mississippi.

Few people know that Samuel Clemens, that is the writer’s real name, was born two weeks after Halley’s Comet passed over the Earth. And in 1909, Twain wrote: “I was born with Halley, and I will leave with her.” On April 20, the comet circled the planet again, and the next day the genius was gone.

Probably, it was precisely this fact that Mark Twain predicted such an unreal life, full of secrets. One of the prose writer's best friends was the mysterious Nikola Tesla. Together with him, Twain participated in the development of mysterious inventions and even patented several, including an album with adhesive pages for photos and an original self-regulating suspenders.

And the world-famous American hated children (despite our favorites - Tom and Huck), but adored cats and tobacco. He started smoking when he was only 8 years old, and until the last day of his life he smoked 30 cigars daily. Moreover, Twain chose the cheapest and most smelly varieties.

Among other things, Mark Twain was one of the most famous American Freemasons. Little is known about his activities in the lodge. His initiation took place in 1861 in the small town of St. Louis and he quickly moved up the “career ladder.”

Looking for a green stick

Well last Hero of our article, a writer whose image has become legendary throughout Mother Russia. We have studied the life of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy from school inside and out. But do you know what influenced the writer’s ideas about universal peace, love and harmony? As a child, little Levushka’s brother told him many times a story about a magic green wand that can be found on the outskirts of that same Yasnaya Polyana and with its help make the world a much better place. It was this fairy tale that influenced the whole later life and the worldview of a great novelist and teacher.

But in my youth future star Russian literature suffered from a common disease - gambling. In one card game with his neighbor, the landowner Gorokhov, Tolstoy lost the house in which he grew up, and all on the same Yasnaya Polyana. Gorokhov, without thinking twice, dismantled the building brick by brick and moved it to his estate.

Tolstoy's oddities do not end there. In my first wedding night, Lev Nikolaevich forced 18-year-old Sofia Bers to re-read his entire diary, especially devoting moments to love affairs. Tolstoy wanted to be honest with the woman he took as his wife, and told her about all his mistresses, including his affairs with countless peasant women. They say that what should happen between husband and wife did not happen that night.