2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
A. Volkov is an excellent scientist, teacher and translator who, during his creative career, wrote several popular science works, historical novels and fantasy stories, and also translated many works of popular foreign authors into Russian. He became known to a wide range of readers thanks to a series of children's books written based on the fairy tale by the American writer Baum, which tells about the Wizard of Oz.
Short biography: Volkov A. M. (childhood)
The writer was born on June 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in a family of a simple class. His father was a retired sergeant-major, and his mother worked as a dressmaker, both were literate, so at the age of three, little Sasha already knew how to read. A love for fairy tales was instilled in him by his mother, who, according to the writer's memoirs, knew many of them and in her spare time always told her son in an interesting and new way.
The family lived very modestly andthere were few such luxuries as books in the house. In order to be able to read as much as possible and earn some money, at the age of eight, the boy learned to famously bind the books of his father's neighbors and colleagues. A. Volkov from childhood read the works of such masters of the pen as Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Nikitin, Jules Verne, Dickens, Mine Reed. The work of these writers significantly influenced his fate in the future.
Young years
At the age of twelve, a talented boy graduated with honors from the city school, where, after graduating from the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, he entered the service as a teacher of mathematics. Beginning in 1910, Alexander worked as a teacher, first in Kolyvan, and then returned to his native Ust-Kamenogorsk, where in 1915 he met his future wife, dance teacher Kaleria Gubina. Having the ability not only to the exact sciences, A. Volkov independently studied German and French and began to try his hand as a translator.
Soviet period
Volkov published his first poems in 1917 in the city newspaper "Siberian Light", and in 1918 he took an active part in the creation of the newspaper "Friend of the People". Having imbued with revolutionary ideas about universal education, Volkov teaches at the courses of teachers in Ust-Kamenogorsk and at the same time writes comedy plays that are staged in theaters for a children's audience. Having moved to Yaroslavl in the twenties, he holds the post of director of the school and graduates in absentia from a mathematicalFaculty of the City Pedagogical Institute. In the thirties, A. Volkov, with his wife and two sons, moved to Moscow to head the educational part of the Workers' Faculty.
At the same time, in less than half a year, having completed the training course, he takes exams at the Moscow University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics as an external student. In 1931, the Moscow Institute of Nonferrous Metals and Gold was created, in which Volkov worked for many years. First as a teacher, and later as an assistant professor in the department of higher mathematics. In addition to scientific and teaching activities, Volkov was actively engaged in literary work throughout his life.
Volkov Alexander Melentievich: books, biography of the writer
Volkov's first attempts at writing were at the age of twelve, inspired by Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe", he tries to write his own adventure novel. Then he takes a great interest in poetry, the poetic fruits of which in 1916-1917 he publishes under the general title "Dreams" in the newspaper "Siberian Light".
During his life in Ust-Kamenogorsk and Yaroslavl, Volkov also wrote a number of plays for a children's audience: "Village School", "Eagle's Beak", "Fern Flower", "Home Teacher", "In a Deaf Corner". These and other plays were staged in city theaters in the twenties and enjoyed great popularity among young audiences.
In 1937, A. Volkov completed work on the historical story "The Wonderful Ball", which was published in 1940. The story is about a political prisonerfrom the time of the Russian Empress Elizabeth, who managed to escape the dungeon with the help of a balloon (original name "The First Balloonist").
The Emerald City and its heroes
In the same year, wanting to practice his English, Alexander Melentievich takes on the translation of the fairy tale "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Fascinated by the process of translation and the plot of the fairy tale, Volkov decides to make it more colorful, he endows the characters with new qualities and adds adventure. Volkov sent the manuscript of the revision of the book for approval to the children's writer Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, who not only approved it, but strongly recommended the author to engage in literary activities on a professional basis. In 1939, a book called "The Wizard of the Emerald City" with illustrations by the artist Nikolai Radlov was published, it won the hearts of many readers and became the beginning of the famous cycle of the same name. In 1941 Alexander Melentyevich Volkov became a member of the organization of professional writers of the Soviet Union.
War period
The theme of adventures and fantastic stories during the war years goes to another plane, all the works of the author of this period have a military and patriotic focus. So, in the works "Invisible Fighters" in 1942 and "Aircraft at War" in 1946, the importance of mathematics in modern types of weapons is discussed. Volkov also writes many patriotic plays and poems for funds.mass media. His historical works Glorious Pages in the History of Russian Artillery and Mathematics in Military Affairs also emphasize the strength and invincibility of the Soviet army.
In the post-war period, historical novels come out from the author's pen: "Two Brothers", "Architects", "Wanderings", as well as science fiction works "Earth and Sky: Entertaining stories in geography and astronomy", "Travelers to the Third Millennium".
Return to the magical land
In 1963, the author, inspired by the success of the first book about the adventures in the magical land of the girl Ellie, the dog Totoshka and their fairy-tale friends, publishes books that continue the fairy-tale cycle: "Ourfin Deuce and his wooden soldiers", "Seven Underground Kings" (1967), "The Fire God of the Marrans" (1968), "Yellow Mist" (1970), "The Secret of the Abandoned Castle". Alexander Volkov writes all books as completely independent, the works are united only by the main characters of the fairy-tale land. Even the girl Ellie, having matured, could no longer return to the magical world, and the new heroine Annie with her dog Artoshka comes to the aid of fairy-tale friends.
Alexander Melentievich died in 1977 on July 3, leaving behind a rich legacy in the form of translations of the works of famous foreign authors, popular science works, historical novels and, of course, the adventures of the heroes of the Emerald City.
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