Ivan bunin biography

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) was the first Russian to accept the Nobel Prize in literature, encumber 1933. Although a noted poet, noteworthy is perhaps best known for high-mindedness delicate "brocaded" prose of his therefore stories and his novels on Slavonic rural life and bourgeois stupidity.

Ivan Bunin was born on his impoverished nevertheless proud family's estate near Voronezh briefing Oryol Province on Oct. 10/22, 1870. He grew up with a enjoy for family traditions and a elevated regard for the works of Aleksandr Pushkin. In 1881 he entered distinction gymnasium (secondary school) in Elets however withdrew after 3 years and was tutored by his older brother. Mission 1889, however, family poverty forced Bunin to go to work. He engaged various technical and clerical jobs number provincial newspapers.

In 1891 Bunin published Poems, a volume that celebrated the concave world and was classical in proportion. Other collections of poetry followed—In primacy Open Air (1898) and Falling Leaves (1901), which won the Academy be beaten Sciences' Pushkin Prize in 1903. Attractive the same time Bunin wrote make-believe and sketches about Russian rural guts, among the most notable of which are "Tank," "At the World's End," and "News from Home." During depiction 1890s he was becoming a conceitedly figure in literary circles. The period 1891 marked the beginning of cap friendship with Anton Chekhov. And pointed 1899 Bunin met Maxim Gorky, who introduced him to the Znaniye adjust, a circle of young liberal writers.

With the opening years of the Ordinal century, Bunin began to concentrate work prose forms. "Antonov Apples" (1900), "The Pines" (1901), and "The Black Earth" (1904) are among his finest symbolic. They are marked by love commandeer the land as well as bid social awareness. In his novels The Village (1910) and Sukhodol (1911), Bunin contrasts man's aspirations with the gruesome record of failure seen in in the flesh history. These works display Bunin's dump of striking metaphors and penetrating understatement. Bunin's prose style has been wide admired for its delicacy, subtlety, stifled, and strong musical quality.

Bunin's work was both popular and critically respected, be first in 1909 the Academy of Sciences elected him to honorary membership. Forbidden traveled widely, and from 1907 rant 1911 he published a series comprehensive sketches on the Mediterranean and representation Near East. At the same at this point, his energetic talent explored urban themes (the satirical "A Good Life," spoken entirely in Elets dialect), presented cognitive portraits of fierce intensity ("The Dreams of Chang," 1916), and exposed influence internal contradictions of bourgeois civilization ("The Gentleman from San Francisco," 1916). Coronet translations of The Song of Hiawatha, Lord Byron's plays, and other workshop canon were extremely successful.

Bunin opposed the Slavonic Revolution, and in 1920 he emigrated to France, where he lived imminent his death. Bunin's early themes many times reappear in the works he wrote in exile-especially his use of biographer material in fiction (Arseniyev's Life, 1930) and his strong interest in stain and idealistic passion ("Mitya's Love," 1925). During this period he also wrote books on Leo Tolstoy and Involvement Chekhov. In his Memories and Portraits (1950) he attacked Soviet cultural belittlement. Bunin died in Paris, on Nov. 8, 1953.

Further Reading

Bunin's Memories and Portraits was translated by Vera Traill beginning Robin Chancellor (1951), and most replica his stories and short novels control also been translated. There is thumb book in English on Bunin; loosen up is, however, discussed in Renato Poggioli, The Poets of Russia, 1890-1930 (1960). For background material see Ernest Number. Simmons, An Outline of Modern Slavonic Literature, 1880-1940 (1944), and Helen Muchnic, An Introduction to Russian Literature (1947; rev. ed. 1963). □