Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich: biography and career

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

Valentin Berestov is a Russian poet, an outstanding publicist, translator, writer, on whose kind verses more than one generation of kids grew up.

Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich: biography

A resident of the city of Meshchovsk (Kaluga region), Valentin was born on April 1, 1928. Raised by loving parents and kind grandparents, the boy learned to read very early.

Moreover, Valentin was introduced to the first letters by a blind great-grandmother. When she received the Izvestia newspaper by subscription, she asked the boy to describe in words the cartoons posted on the pages of the publication. One of them depicted a mountain cliff with 4 huge letters towering among the raging sea. Great-grandmother asked: “Three letters are the same and are located together? Not otherwise than the USSR! This was the first word that the future poet was able to read on his own.

Life in evacuation

When the boy was 13 years old, his family was evacuated from Meshchovsk to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. There, Valentin was lucky to meetKorney Chukovsky, Anna Akhmatova and make friends with Moore, the son of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. Literary criticism Valentin and his two friends studied with the daughter of Korney Chukovsky - Lydia, and Nadezhda Mandelstam taught English to the children.

Korney Chukovsky, who later played a significant role in the fate of Berestov, treated the beginning of the young author's creative path with great care and sincere interest. According to the prominent writer, Valentine - a frail 14-year-old teenager - was endowed with great talent, a refined sense of style, hard work and high innate culture.

Valentin Berestov: poems and stories

In 1944, the Berestovs changed their place of residence to the Moscow region. After successfully graduating from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and postgraduate studies at the Institute of Ethnography, Valentin took part in numerous archaeological excavations. Contact with antiquities formed the basis of the fascinating and educational works "The Sword in a Golden Scabbard", "The Empress of the Desert".

The first publications of the author, dedicated to the exotic profession of an archaeologist, took place in 1946 in the journal "Youth". In 1957, the debut collection of poems "Departure" saw the light of day, which was approved by both the poetic fraternity and critics. At the same time, Valentin Berestov, whose poems became quite popular among the readership, published the first book for younger children, “About the Car,” after which “Lark”, “Fifth Leg”, “Definitionhappiness”, “First leaf fall”, “How to find a path”, “Smile”.

In family life, Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich was happily married to Alexandrova Tatyana Ivanovna, an artist, storyteller and author of a book about the famous brownie Kuzya.

In the 1970s, the couple's three-room apartment was almost the only place in the capital where young artists, journalists, and poets gathered regularly, 2-3 times a week. Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich helped many of them at the beginning of their literary journey.

Literary activity

Being a publicist, Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov, whose stories are still relevant today, was fond of the work of other writers. In particular, he was attracted by the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Valentin Dmitrievich wrote interesting articles about Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin, Osip Mandelstam. His memoirs about Alexei Tolstoy, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Anna Akhmatova, Korney Chukovsky, Boris Pasternak are of sincere interest to the readership. He successfully proved himself in writing epigrams, which were popular with listeners. Along the way, Valentin Berestov was engaged in translations and retellings of biblical traditions.

In the difficult 90s, when creativity ceased to be profitable, Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich began to earn money by writing songs. Together with Eduard Uspensky, he began to appear on the radio, wrote poetry, memoirs. In the last years of his life, together with his wife, he composed and published children's fairy tales. The key thing in these years was the compilation of the "Chosen Ones"according to the "Explanatory Dictionary" of Dahl V. I., which the author studied in tandem with his wife. The publication was published in 2001. Most of the time Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich devoted to filming on television and radio broadcasts, wrote music for his own poems and even performed with musical groups.

The famous writer, a man with a broad soul and an open heart, died on April 15, 1998. Valentin Berestov was a writer, completely atypical, not like ordinary Soviet writers - this is a Man with a capital letter, joyful and absolutely free. "A talented, intelligent, cheerful, lyrical poet," as Naum Moiseevich Korzhavin called him.