Tokmakova Irina Petrovna. Biography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Tokmakova Irina Petrovna entered the history of Russian literature as a talented children's prose writer and poet, translator of foreign poems. For her creative activity, Irina wrote a huge number of educational fairy tales for preschoolers. In addition, Tokmakova has translated folklore poems from England and Sweden. Do you want to know more about this writer, to get acquainted with her life and creative path? If so, this article is for you.

Tokmakova Irina Petrovna. Biography for kids

The future poetess was born on March 3, 1929 in Moscow. The girl grew up in a completely prosperous and well-to-do family. Her father, Pyotr Manukov, was an electrical engineer, and her mother, Lydia Diligenskaya, was a pediatrician and at the same time was in charge of the local Foundling Home.

Tokmakova Irina Petrovna (photo can be seen above) has shown her talents since childhood. For example, she had an irresistible thirst for knowledge. She spent hours in the school library and read books on various topics. Huge amount of knowledge helpedgirl while studying. It was for this reason that it was not difficult for Irina to graduate from school with a gold medal.

University

Tokmakova was drawn to literature from an early age. She actively read both Russian and foreign writers and poets. As a child, Irina even wrote poems herself. However, the girl did not pay much attention to this hobby, as she believed that she had no literary talent. It was for this reason that after graduating from school, she decided to go to the Faculty of Linguistics. The young poetess managed to enter one of the most prestigious universities in the country - Moscow State University (MSU). A few years later, Irina received a higher education, graduating from a university with honors. She decided to go to work by profession. Thus, Tokmakova became a translator.

Literary activity

Irina started her literary career rather late. And in general, Tokmakova was not going to engage in literature. Everything happened very spontaneously. Once Mr. Borgquist came to Russia - a power engineer from Sweden. In the course of joint work, the man got to know the young translator better. He learned that Irina Petrovna Tokmakova was a fan of Swedish folk poetry. It was for this reason that the man sent Tokmakova a collection of children's Swedish songs, which was intended for Irina's son. The first literary translations of poems were made for home use. However, Irina's husband, the famous illustrator Lev Tokmakov, secretly tooktranslations of poems for publishers. Leo also drew illustrations for the translations. As a result, the publishing house published the work, and thus the first book of Tokmakova was born, which was called "The bees lead a round dance." This event happened in 1961.

Tokmakova's children's book was quite popular. This inspired Irina, and she decided to actively engage in literary activities. Thus, a year later, a collection of her own poems called "Trees" was published. As in the case of "The bees lead a round dance", the illustrations for the work were drawn by Irina's husband.

Creativity

As you can see from the above, Tokmakova's main audience is children. The writer quite actively produced short children's stories in poetic form. It was these works that brought her the greatest fame. As a rule, these books carried some kind of instructive story and morality. It is for this reason that the works of Irina Petrovna Tokmakova can be considered parables.

Irina also became famous as a playwright. Tokmakova's plays were staged in the best theaters in Russia. As in the case of prose, dramatic works were aimed at a children's audience. The most famous plays include "Kukareka", "Enchanted Hoof", "Star Masters", "Morozko", "Starship Fedya" and others.

Tokmakova's bibliography contains rather atypicalworks. For example, she wrote various children's stories-games, thanks to which the child could learn to read, count, understand the basics of grammar. It is also worth noting that Tokmakova participated in various literary collaborations. For example, Irina wrote a couple of children's plays in collaboration with the notorious Soviet writer Sofya Prokofieva ("A Gift for the Snow Maiden", "Robin Hood's Arrow", "Ivan the Bogatyr and the Tsar Maiden", "Andrey the Strelok and Marya Golubka").

Tokmakova Irina Petrovna. Interesting facts from life

Even in her student years, Irina met a promising artist Lev Tokmakov. Passion immediately flared between them, and soon the couple formalized their marriage. A little later, a new member appeared in the Tokmakov family - Vasily, who decided to follow in his mother's footsteps and become a poet.

In 2002, Irina Petrovna was awarded one of the most prestigious awards in our country - the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Tokmakova received an award for achievements in literature and art.