Biography Pisemsky Alexey Feofilaktovich


(1821 – 1881)

Pisemsky Alexey Feofilaktovich (1821 – 1881), the prose writer.
Born March 11 (23 N. s.) In the village Ramenie of the Kostroma province in a poor noble family. He spent his childhood in Vetluga, where his father, a retired lieutenant colonel, served as a governor.
In 1934 – 40 he studied at the Kostroma Gymnasium, after which he entered the Moscow University at the Mathematical Department of the Faculty of Philosophy. “I did not get much scientific information… but I got acquainted with Shakespeare, Goethe, Russo, Voltaire, Hugo, consciously appreciated Russian literature” – so Pisemsky will say about his student years.
After graduating in 1844, the university moved to the village, but soon entered the service in the Kostroma Chamber, where he served several years. Official trips to the province gave the writer rich material for creativity.
The first published work of Pisemsky was the story “Nina”

(1848), but the real story was brought to him by the story “Tyufyak” (1850). Already the first stories put him on a par with the best writers of the time.
In 1953 Pogodin published Pisemsky’s The Tales and Stories in three volumes, which included his already well-known works: Comedian, Marriage for Passion, Hypochondriac, and others. His relationship with the “young editor” of the Moskvitian (A Ostrovsky, A. Grigoriev, and others) were increasingly strengthened. In “Moskvityanin” was published the first story from the series “Essays from the peasant way of life” – “Piterschik”, followed by “Leshiy” (1853) and “Carpentry Artel” (1855), later – “Old Lady” and “
After retiring and moving to Petersburg in the winter of 1954, he approaches the editorial board of Sovremennik, but is also published in other publications.
In 1856 he left for eight months in an expedition organized by the Ministry of the Sea to the shores of the Caspian Sea in order to study the life of the population
engaged in fishing. Returning, he prints a series of essays and proceeds to work on one of his main works, the novel “A Thousand Souls”, which was published in Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1858. An important place in Pisemsky’s work was also played by the play “Bitter Destiny” (1859), for which he won the Academy of Sciences in 1860.
In 1860 he became the responsible editor of the “Library for Reading”. He performs with a series of feuilletons directed against revolutionary-democratic journalism (Iskra and Sovremennik). The editors of Iskra summoned Pisemsky to a duel, which, fortunately, did not take place.
In the summer of 1862 he was abroad, met in London with Herzen. Returning, published in the reactionary “Russian Herald” novel “Vzbalamuchenoe Sea, unanimously condemned by democratic criticism.
In the 1860s and 70s, the writer lost his influence in literature, although he continued to work extensively. In these years he wrote dramas and novels: “The old falcons” (1864), “The chicks of the last meeting” (1865), “Predator” (1873), “Enlightened time” (1875)
The publication of the last novel “Masons” ended in late 1880 in the magazine “Ogonyok” a few months before the death of Pisemsky. He died on January 21 (February 2, 2006). 1881.
A brief biography from the book: Russian writers and poets. A short biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.


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Biography Pisemsky Alexey Feofilaktovich