Samuil Marshak(1887-1964)

Samuil Marshak is Russian and Soviet poet, play-writer and translator, literary critic, screenwriter. The author of popular children's books. Early childhood and school years, Samuil spent in the town of Ostrogozhsk, near Voronezh, where his uncle, Mikhail Gitelson, a dentist at the Ostrogozhsk male gymnasium, lived. He studied in the years 1899-1906 in Ostrogozhskiy, the 3rd St. Petersburg and Yalta gymnasiums. In the gymnasium, a teacher of literature instilled a love for classical poetry, encouraged the first literary experiences of the future poet and considered him a wunderkind. One of the poetic notebooks of Marshak fell into the hands of V. V. Stasov, a famous Russian critic and art historian, who took an active part in the fate of the young man. With the help of Stasov, Samuil moves to Petersburg and studies in one of the best gymnasiums. He spends whole days in the public library where Stasov worked. He began to be printed in 1907, having published the collection "Zionids". In 1911, together with his friend, the poet Yakov Godin, and a group of youth made a long journey through the Middle East: they sailed from Odessa on a ship, heading for the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean - Turkey, Greece, Syria, and Palestine. Marshak went there as a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Universal newspaper and the Blue Journal. Under the influence of what he saw, he created a cycle of poems under the common name "Palestine". On this trip, he met Sophia Milvidskaya (1889-1953), whom he married soon after returning. At the end of September 1912, the newlyweds went to England. There Marshak studied first at the Polytechnic, then at the University of London (1912-1914). During the holidays he traveled extensively on foot in England, listening to English folk songs. Even then, he began working on translations of English ballads, which later glorified him. During the Great Patriotic War, he actively worked in the genre of satire, publishing poems in Pravda and creating posters. During all his literary activities (over 50 years), he continues to write both poetic feuilletons and serious, lyrics. In 1962, his collection "The Chosen Lyrics" was published; he also owns a separately selected cycle "Lyrical epigrams". Books of Marshak are translated into many languages of the world.