You can find a huge amount of information about famous writers - how they lived, how they created their immortal works. We want to bring to your attention interesting and unusual facts from life. famous writers. Reading interesting book, the reader usually does not think about the peculiarities of the character and lifestyle of the writer who wrote it, but some facts of his biography or the history of the creation of a particular book are sometimes very entertaining and even cause a smile.
One day at Francois Rabelais there was no money to get from Lyon to Paris. Then he prepared three bags with the inscriptions “Poison for the King”, “Poison for the Queen” and “Poison for the Dauphin” and left them in a visible place in the hotel room. Upon learning of this, the hotel owner immediately reported to the authorities. Rabelais was captured and convoyed to the capital directly to King Francis I so that he could decide the writer’s fate. It turned out that the packages contained sugar, which Rabelais immediately drank with a glass of water, and then told the king, with whom they were friends, how he solved his problem. 
Charles Dickens I drank half a liter of champagne every day. It all started when, in 1858, Dickens, in order to raise his popularity to a new level, decided to give lectures. His performances were extremely successful, and he traveled all over England and then went to America. And where there is a lecture, there is a subsequent meeting with readers! How can we live here without champagne! In addition, the writer Charles Dickens always slept with his head facing north. He also sat facing north when he wrote his great works. 
Franz Kafka was the most humble person. He practically did not publish everything that he wrote, but he always read it aloud to his three Prague friends. Being seriously ill, he asked his friend Max Brod to burn all his works after his death, including several unfinished novels. Brod did not fulfill this request, but, on the contrary, ensured the publication of the works that brought Kafka worldwide fame. 
Ilf and Petrov They avoided cliché thoughts in a very original way. They discarded ideas that came to both of them at once. 
Marie-François Arouet (Voltaire) simultaneously wrote several works. Sitting down at his desk, depending on his mood, he took the manuscript and continued to work on it. 
Kir Bulychev- this is the final pseudonym of Vsevolod Mozheiko, but in general he changed them every month, especially when he worked in the magazine “Around the World”. He once signed himself "Sarah Fan" but was accused of anti-Semitism. We decided to simply put “S. Fan,” but this was considered an attack against the Korean people. Then Bulychev signed: “Ivan Shlagbaum.” 
Alexandre Dumas the father(1802-1870), whose green collection of works in fifteen volumes occupies bookshelves in many apartments, he did not write all these adventure novels himself. A whole staff of “literary blacks” worked for Dumas - at other times their number reached 70 people. More often than others, Dumas collaborated with the writer Auguste Macquet (1813-1888), who wrote, in particular, significant parts of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Montecristo. From the correspondence between Dumas and Macke it follows that the latter’s contribution to the beloved novels was very significant. 
Main plot immortal work N.V. Gogol“The Inspector General” was suggested to the author by A. S. Pushkin. These great classics were good friends. Once Alexander Sergeevich told Nikolai Vasilyevich interesting fact from the life of the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province. It was this incident that formed the basis of the work of Nikolai Gogol. Throughout the time he was writing The Inspector General, Gogol often wrote to Pushkin about his work, told him what stage it was in, and also repeatedly announced that he wanted to quit it. However, Pushkin forbade him to do this, so “The Inspector General” was still completed. By the way, Pushkin, who was present at the first reading of the play, was completely delighted with it. 
The stable phrase “lost generation” came to us from the works Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway's lost generation are young people who found themselves at the front at an early age (for Hemingway, primarily the period between the two world wars), often not yet graduating from school, undecided in life, but who began to kill early. After returning from the war, such people, morally or physically crippled, often could not adapt to peaceful life, many committed suicide, some went crazy. Also called the "Lost Generation" literary movement, which united such famous writers as Ham himself, James Joyce, Erich Maria Remarque, Henri Barbusse, Francis Scott Fitzgerald and others. 
Darya Dontsova, whose father was Soviet writer Arkady Vasiliev, grew up surrounded by the creative intelligentsia. Once at school she was asked to write an essay on the topic: “What was Valentin Petrovich Kataev thinking about when he wrote the story “The Lonely Sail Whitens”?”, and Dontsova asked Kataev himself to help her. As a result, Daria received a bad grade, and the literature teacher wrote in her notebook: “Kataev was not thinking about this at all!” 
Belarusian poet Adam Mickiewicz was also a science fiction writer. In the novel “The History of the Future,” he wrote about acoustic devices with the help of which, sitting by the fireplace, you can listen to concerts from the city, as well as about mechanisms that allow the inhabitants of the Earth to maintain contact with creatures inhabiting other planets. 
Honore de Balzac I wrote in the dark, so even during the day I closed the curtains and lit candles. Starting to work on a new piece, Balzac locked himself in a room for one or two months and closed the shutters tightly so that no light could penetrate through them. He wrote by candlelight, dressed in a robe, for 18 hours every day. 
U Lord Byron there were four pet geese that followed him everywhere, even at social gatherings. Despite being overweight and having a rather severe clubfoot, Byron was considered one of the most energetic and attractive people of his time. 
To his close relatives he was Ronald, to his school friends he was John Ronald. At Oxford University, where he first studied and then taught, he was called “Tollers.” It's about O John Ronald Rowan Tolkien. By the way, in Denmark there is The Tolkien Ensemble - an ensemble named after Tolkien. This is a Danish symphony orchestra that performs musical pieces based on the works of Tolkien. He has the support of Queen Margaret II, a great fan of Tolkien's books, who herself illustrates his books. 
Frankenstein- this is not the name of the famous monster at all. In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein or Modern Prometheus“, which first saw the light in 1818, this very monster was simply called “Monster”. Victor Frankenstein was the name of a young student scientist from Geneva who created a living creature from non-living material. 
Mark Twain was a good inventor. Among his developments are a notebook with tear-off leaves for journalists, a wardrobe with sliding shelves, and also the most ingenious of his inventions - a tie-tying machine!
Real name Daniel Defoe, was not de Fo, indicating noble origin, but simply Fo. By the way, he wrote not just one book, but more than 300. Moreover, among his works there are a lot scientific works on history, economics, geography, as well as a series of books on demonology and magic. He even wrote a book about the history of the reign of Peter I. 
One of the most prolific writers of all times was a Spaniard Lope de Vega. In addition to “Dog in the Manger,” he wrote another 1,800 plays, all of them in verse. He never worked on a single play for more than 3 days. At the same time, his work was well paid, so Lope de Vega was practically a multimillionaire, which is extremely rare among writers. 
The life and work of the world's literary luminaries is rich in all sorts of interesting things. For example, Russian poets and writers came up with many new words: substance, thermometer (Lomonosov), industry (Karamzin), bungling (Saltykov-Shchedrin), fade away (Dostoevsky), mediocrity (Severyanin), exhausted (Khlebnikov). In our library you can plunge into the fascinating world of masterpieces of world literature, as well as increase your erudition by becoming familiar with a lot of new information. We are waiting for you in our library! 
William Shakespeare 1. William Shakespeare was born and died on the same day (but, fortunately, on different years) - On April 23, 1564, he was born and, 52 years later, died on the same day. 2. Another one died on the same day as Shakespeare. great writer- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. The author of Don Quixote died on April 23, 1616. 3. Contemporaries claimed that Shakespeare was fond of poaching - he hunted deer in the domain of Sir Thomas Lucy, without any permission from this very Lucy. 
George Byron 4. The great poet Byron was lame, prone to obesity and extremely loving - in a year in Venice, according to some reports, he made 250 ladies happy with himself, lame and fat. 5. Byron had an amazing personal collection - strands of hair cut from the pubes of his beloved women. The locks (or perhaps curls) were kept in envelopes on which the names of the hostesses were romantically inscribed. Some researchers argue that it was possible to admire (if this word is appropriate here) the poet’s collection back in the 1980s, after which traces of vegetation were lost. 6. And also great poet Byron loved spending time with boys, including, alas, minors. We don’t even comment on this! 250 ladies wasn’t enough for the scoundrel! 7. Well, a little more about Byron - he really loved animals. Fortunately, not in the sense that you may have put into this phrase after reading about Byron a little higher. The romantic poet adored animals platonically and even kept a menagerie in which a badger, monkeys, horses, a parrot, a crocodile and many other animals lived. 
Charles Dickens 8. Charles Dickens had a very difficult childhood. When his dad went to debtor's prison, little Charlie was sent to work... no, not in a chocolate factory, but in a blacking factory, where he stuck labels on jars from morning to evening. Not dusty, you say? But stick them from morning to evening instead of playing football with the boys, and you will understand why Dickens’ images of unfortunate orphans were so convincing. 9. In 1857, Hans Christian Andersen came to visit Dickens. This is not a Kharms joke, this is life itself! Andersen and Dickens met back in 1847, were completely delighted with each other, and now, 10 years later, the Dane decided to take advantage of the invitation given to him. The trouble is that over the years in Dickens’s life everything has changed a lot and become more complicated - he was not ready to accept Andersen, and he lived with him for almost five weeks! “He doesn’t speak any languages except his Danish, although there are suspicions that he doesn’t know that either,” Dickens told his friends about his guest in this way. Poor Andersen became the target of ridicule from the numerous descendants of the author of Little Dorrit, and when he left, Dad Dickens left a note in his room: “Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed like years to our family.” And you also ask why Andersen wrote such sad fairy tales? 10. Dickens was also fond of hypnosis, or, as they said then, mesmerism. 11. One of Dickens’ favorite pastimes was going to the Paris morgue, where unidentified bodies were exhibited. Truly a dear person! 
Oscar Wilde 12. Oscar Wilde did not take Dickens's writings seriously and mocked them for any reason. In general, contemporary critics of Charles Dickens endlessly hinted that he would never be included in the list of the best British writers. And we’ll get to Oscar Wilde later. 13. But Dickens was devotedly loved by ordinary readers - in 1841 in the port of New York, where the sequel was to be brought final chapters“Antiquities Shops”, 6 thousand people gathered, and everyone shouted to the passengers of the mooring ship: “Will little Nell die?” 14. Dickens could not work if the tables and chairs in his office were not arranged as they should. Only he knew how to do it - and each time he began work by rearranging the furniture. 15. Charles Dickens disliked monuments so much that in his will he strictly forbade him from erecting them. The only bronze statue of Dickens is in Philadelphia. By the way, the statue was initially rejected by the writer’s family. 
O.Henry 16. American writer O. Henry began writing career in prison, where he ended up for embezzlement. And things went so well for him that everyone soon forgot about prison. 
Ernest Hemingway 17. Ernest Hemingway was not only an alcoholic and a suicide, as everyone knows. He also had peiraphobia (fear of public speaking), in addition, he never believed the praise of even his most sincere readers and admirers. I didn’t even believe my friends, and that’s all! 18. Hemingway survived five wars, four automobile and two air crashes. As a child, his mother also forced him to attend dance school. And over time he himself began to call himself Pope. 19. The same Hemingway often and willingly talked about the fact that the FBI was watching him. The interlocutors smiled wryly, but in the end it turned out that the Pope was right - declassified documents confirmed that this was indeed surveillance, and not paranoia. 
Gertrude Stein 20. The first person in history to use the word “gay” in literature was Gertrude Stein, a lesbian writer who hated punctuation and gave the world the term “lost generation.” 21. Oscar Wilde - like Ernest Hemingway - was dressed up in girls' dresses for a long time as a child. In both cases, we note, it ended badly. 22. The most famous quote from Gertrude Stein is “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” 
Honore de Balzac 23. Honore de Balzac loved coffee - he drank about 50 cups of strong Turkish coffee a day. If it was not possible to make coffee, the writer simply ground a handful of beans and chewed them with great pleasure. 24. Balzac believed that ejaculation is a waste of creative energy, since semen is a brain substance. Once, talking with a friend after a successful conversation, the writer exclaimed bitterly: “This morning I lost my novel!” 
Edgar Allan Poe 25. Edgar Allan Poe was afraid of the dark all his life. Perhaps one of the reasons for this fear was that as a child the future writer studied... in a cemetery. The school where the boy went was so poor that it was impossible to buy textbooks for the children. A resourceful math teacher taught classes in a nearby cemetery, among the graves. Each student chose a tombstone for himself and calculated how many years the deceased had lived, subtracting the date of birth from the date of death. It is not surprising that Poe grew up to become what he became - the founder of world horror literature. 
Lewis Carroll 26. The most psychedelic writer of all time should be recognized as Lewis Carroll, a shy British mathematician who wrote fairy tales about Alice. His writings were inspired by the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Tim Burton and others. 27. Lewis Carroll's real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He had the ecclesiastical rank of deacon, and in his personal diaries, Carroll constantly repented of some sin. However, these pages were destroyed by the writer’s family so as not to discredit his image. Some researchers seriously believe that Carroll was Jack the Ripper, who, as we know, was never found. 28. Carroll suffered from swamp fever, cystitis, lumbago, eczema, furunculosis, arthritis, pleurisy, rheumatism, insomnia and a whole bunch of other diseases. In addition, he had an almost continuous - and very severe - headache. 29. The author of "Alice" was a passionate fan technical progress, and he himself personally invented a tricycle, a mnemonic system for remembering names and dates, an electric pen, and it was he who came up with the idea of writing the title of a book on the spine and created the prototype of everyone’s favorite game Scrabble. 
Franz Kafka 30. Franz Kafka was the grandson of a kosher butcher and a strict vegetarian. 
Walt Whitman 31. The great American poet Walt Whitman had a very specific sexual orientation. He admired, however, first of all Abraham Lincoln, whom he praised in the poem “Oh, Captain! My captain!". And once Whitman met another gay icon - the sarcastic Irishman Oscar Wilde, who so disliked Charles Dickens (who, in turn, did not like Andersen, see above). Wilde told Whitman that he adored Leaves of Grass, which his mother often read to him as a child, after which Whitman kissed the “excellent, large and handsome young man” right on the lips. “I can still feel Whitman’s kiss on my lips,” the author of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” shared with his friends. Brr! 
Mark Twain 32. Mark Twain is the pseudonym of a man named Samuel Langhorne Clemens. In addition, Twain also had the pseudonyms Tramp, Josh, Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom and W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab. By the way, “Mark Twain,” a concept from the field of navigation, means “measure two” fathoms: this is how the minimum depth suitable for navigation was noted. 33. Mark Twain was friends with one of the most mysterious people of his time - the inventor Nikola Tesla. The writer himself patented several inventions, such as self-adjusting suspenders and a scrapbook with adhesive pages. 34. Twain also adored cats and hated children (he even wanted to erect a monument to King Herod). A great writer once said: “If it were possible to cross a person with a cat, the human race would only benefit from this, but the cat breed would clearly worsen.” 35. Twain was a heavy smoker (he is the author of the phrase that is now attributed to everyone: “There is nothing easier than quitting smoking. I know, I’ve done it a thousand times”). He started smoking when he was eight years old and smoked 20 to 40 cigars daily until his death. The writer chose the smelliest and cheapest cigars. 
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 36. The author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkien, was an extremely bad driver, snored so much that he had to spend the night in the bathroom so as not to disturb his wife’s sleep, and was also a terrible Francophobe - he hated the French since William the Conqueror. 
Lev Tolstoy 37. On his first wedding night with Sophia Bers, 34-year-old Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy forced his 18-year-old newly married wife to read those pages in his diary, which described in detail the amorous adventures of the writer with different women, among others - with serf peasant women. Tolstoy wanted there to be no secrets between him and his wife. 
Agatha Christie 38. Agatha Christie suffered from dysgraphia, that is, she practically could not write by hand. All of her famous novels were dictated. 
Anton Chekhov 39. Chekhov was a big fan of going to a brothel - and, finding himself in a foreign city, the first thing he did was study it from this side. 
James Joyce 40. James Joyce was afraid of dogs and thunderstorms more than anything else, hated monuments and was a masochist. 41. When Tolstoy left home in old age, most of the reporters rushed after him, and only one, the most shrewd fellow, came to Yasnaya Polyana to find out how Sofya Andreevna was doing. Soon the editor received a telegram: “The Countess, with a changed face, is running to the pond.” This is how the reporter described Sofia Andreevna’s intention to drown herself. Subsequently, the phrase was picked up by two completely different writers - Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, presenting it to their brilliant hero Ostap Bender. 
William Faulkner 42. William Faulkner worked as a postman for several years until it was discovered that he often threw undelivered letters into the trash. 
Jack London 43. Jack London was a socialist, and also the first American writer in history to earn a million dollars through his work. 
Arthur Conan Doyle 44. Arthur Conan Doyle, who invented Sherlock Holmes, was an occultist and believed in the existence of small winged fairies. 
Jean-Paul Sartre 45. Jean-Paul Sartre experimented with mind-expanding substances and strongly supported terrorists. Perhaps the first was somehow connected with the second.
Writers are people who write textual works that are intended for others to read. When we want to immerse ourselves in another Universe, we always turn to these very creations of writers. Their activities help us in many ways in life, teach us to be useful to society and mutual assistance.
Facts about writers
Any connoisseur of literature is familiar with. According to rumors, he was very loving, but at the same time plump and lame, but this did not stop him from luring women into his network.
I was not a child with a happy childhood. His father was sent to a debtor's prison, and the boy himself had to work to feed his family. He was hired at a waxing factory, where every day from morning to night he glued labels to cans. Many will say that the work is not dusty, what's wrong with that? Try doing this all day instead of the usual children’s games and you’ll understand. That is why Dickens’s images of unhappy children came out perfectly.
We are all familiar with creativity. He was deathly afraid of the dark. Perhaps the reason for this was that the future writer studied in a cemetery. The school was too poor, so the math teacher brought the children there, where the children chose a monument for themselves and calculated how many years a person had lived. Now the themes of Allan Poe's works are not so surprising.
He was a friend of the inventor, who was considered the most secretive person of his time. Twain even invented a couple of things.
He was addicted to drugs, and he also supported the ideas of terrorists. Perhaps it was because of him drug addiction, who knows?
There was a whole team of proofreaders working on it. The thing is that he had absolutely no spelling and punctuation knowledge. Since he wanted his works to be published in in good shape, he had to hire people to correct his mistakes.
In Great Britain, she is revered little less than the Queen. It is also called the symbol of the country. Its sales circulation is practically the highest, second only to Shakespeare.
He was so popular that towards the end of his life, loving readers sent letters with the address “Avenue V. Hugo”, although the street had a specific name. However, the parcel always found its addressee.
About Russian writers and poets
All that can be said about Russian writers and poets is that they are loved all over the world. Every connoisseur literary works says that Russian classics are a necessary foundation for any person.
The most popular poet in Russia was very ugly, which distinguishes him from his wife, Natalya Goncharova. He was ten centimeters shorter than her. That is why at balls Alexander Sergeevich tried to stay as far as possible from his beloved, so that such a contrast would not distract people too much.
When I was young, I spent a lot of time gambling. Once he even lost his estate in Yasnaya Polyana. He wanted to buy her back, but for some reason he didn’t.
Helped pack things for evacuation. He tied her suitcase with a strong rope, joking that she could at least hang herself with it. It was on this that Tsvetaeva ended up hanging herself.
Gogol was partial to needlework. For the summer he even sewed scarves for himself, which he loved very much.
Several years before his death, he wrote that he would not be buried until his body began to decompose. They didn’t listen to him and buried him almost immediately. After digging up the body, they said that the skull was turned to one side. Another version says that the skull was missing. The writer was very afraid that he would be buried alive. Whether this happened or not, no one knows.
The only word he used to describe his homeland was the word “steal” when asked about Russia in another country.
Tolstoy had terrible handwriting. Only the writer’s wife, who rewrote his famous novel “War and Peace,” could understand him several times. He wrote quickly, so that his handwriting became illegible. Looking at the volume of his works, the theory seems real.
The most readable handwriting was his, for which he was thanked many times.
She had a sensitive sense of smell. Once he broke down the scent of a French perfumer into ingredients, to which the latter only sighed in disappointment, regretting that Kuprin was just a writer.
– a historian and philologist by training.
From the life of writers and poets
Writers are the same people; a lot of funny things happen in their lives:
As a joke, Sir chose twelve of the richest people in London, who had a reputation as honest and decent bankers, and wrote them notes saying that everything had come to light. The next day, every single banker left the city. This is how their criminal atrocities were revealed, and it was just a joke.
In his early years, Mark Twain worked as a journalist in Nevada. One day he went to a billiards club, but bet a young man 50 cents that he would beat him at the game. The stranger said that he would play with his left hand, so he felt sorry for Twain, who played worse than ever. Mark decided to teach him a lesson, but still lost, giving away his money. He then said that he would like to see the guy play right hand, if he is so good with his left hand, to which the latter said that he is actually left-handed.
Pushkin was gambling, he had large debts. When time was running out, he amused himself by drawing caricatures of creditors in his notebooks. One day it came out and there was a huge scandal.
One day, three local university students caught up with us on the embankment of the Fontanka River. One of them said: “Look, a cloud is approaching,” hinting at the fatness of the fabulist. The latter did not remain in debt, saying that the toads were croaking.
Once I collided with a cyclist, both escaped with only a slight fright. When the guy started to apologize to the writer, he laughed and said:
“It’s good that you didn’t kill me, otherwise you would forever remain the one who killed Bernard Shaw.”
About children's writers
Children's writers are just a title. Adults often like to read their works. There's even a list best writers children's literature:
Hans Christian Andersen is one of the most famous storytellers in the world. However, he always believed that his works were for an adult audience. He didn't even like children. When they decided to erect a monument to him, he demanded that the figures of children not be anywhere near them.
The works are familiar to each of us. He changed many professions before becoming a writer. During the Great Patriotic War, Dragunsky took part in the defense of Moscow.
- the person whose poems we learn first. His fairy tales are very firmly entrenched in the life of any person. Playing with children, he himself became a child. The children adored him for his simplicity of soul.
It is part of every person's childhood. She was a very determined woman: if she got something into her head, have no doubt that she would achieve her goal.
The work of a writer takes a lot of effort and time. People who study literature in this vein are spiritually developed much better than others. Their talent instills in us a love of beauty.
There are many interesting facts associated with Russian poets and writers that shed light on this or that event. It seems to us that we know everything, or almost everything, about the lives of great writers, but there are pages unexplored!
So, for example, we learned that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was the initiator of the fatal duel and did everything possible to make it happen - it was a matter of honor for the poet... And Leo Tolstoy, due to his passion for gambling lost his house. And we also know how the great Anton Pavlovich loved to call his wife in correspondence - “the crocodile of my soul”... Read about these and other facts of Russian geniuses in our selection of “the most interesting facts from the life of Russian poets and writers.”
Russian writers came up with many new words: substance, thermometer ( Lomonosov), industry ( Karamzin), bungling ( Saltykov-Shchedrin), fade away ( Dostoevsky), mediocrity ( Northerner), exhausted ( Khlebnikov).
Pushkin was not handsome, unlike his wife Natalya Goncharova, who, in addition to everything, was 10 cm taller than her husband. For this reason, when attending balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife, so as not to once again draw the attention of others to this contrast.
During the period of courtship with his future wife Natalya, Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and at the same time usually said: “I am delighted, I am fascinated, In short, I am enchanted!”
Korney Chukovsky- it is a nickname. Real name (according to available documents) of the most published in Russia children's writer- Nikolai Vasilievich Korneychukov. He was born in 1882 in Odessa out of wedlock, was recorded under his mother’s surname, and published his first article in 1901 under the pseudonym Korney Chukovsky.
Lev Tolstoy. In his youth, the future genius of Russian literature was quite passionate. Once upon a time card game with his neighbor, the landowner Gorokhov, Leo Tolstoy lost the main building of the inherited estate - the estate Yasnaya Polyana. The neighbor dismantled the house and took it 35 miles away as a trophy. It is worth noting that this was not just a building - it was here that the writer was born and spent his childhood years, it was this house that he remembered warmly all his life and even wanted to buy it back, but for one reason or another he did not.
Famous Soviet writer and public figure burr, that is, did not pronounce the letters “r” and “l”. This happened in childhood when, while playing, he accidentally cut his tongue with a razor, and it became difficult for him to pronounce his name: Kirill. In 1934 he took the pseudonym Konstantin.
Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov were natives of Odessa, but met only in Moscow immediately before starting work on their first novel. Subsequently, the duo worked together so well that even Ilf’s daughter Alexandra, who is involved in popularizing the writers’ heritage, called herself the daughter of “Ilf and Petrov.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn communicated more than once with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. For example, Yeltsin asked his opinion about the Kuril Islands (Solzhenitsyn advised giving them to Japan). And in the mid-1990s, after Alexander Isaevich returned from emigration and restored his Russian citizenship, by order of Yeltsin, he was given the Sosnovka-2 state dacha in the Moscow region.
Chekhov sat down to write, dressed in full dress. Kuprin, on the contrary, he loved working completely naked.
When a Russian satirist-writer Arkady Averchenko during the First World War, he brought a story to one of the editors military theme, the censor deleted the phrase from it: “The sky was blue.” It turns out that from these words, enemy spies could guess that what was happening in the south.
Real name satirical writer Grigory Gorin There was Ofstein. When asked about the reason for choosing the pseudonym, Gorin replied that it was an abbreviation: “Grisha Ofshtein decided to change his nationality.”
Initially at the grave Gogol in the monastery cemetery lay a stone nicknamed Golgotha because of its resemblance to Mount Jerusalem. When they decided to destroy the cemetery, during reburial in another place they decided to install a bust of Gogol on the grave. And that same stone was subsequently placed on Bulgakov’s grave by his wife. In this regard, the phrase is noteworthy Bulgakov, which he repeatedly addressed to Gogol during his lifetime: “Teacher, cover me with your overcoat.”
After the outbreak of World War II Marina Tsvetaeva They were sent for evacuation to the city of Elabuga, in Tatarstan. Boris Pasternak helped her pack her things. He brought a rope to tie up the suitcase, and, assuring of its strength, joked: “The rope will withstand everything, even if you hang yourself.” Subsequently, he was told that it was on her that Tsvetaeva hanged herself in Yelabuga.
The famous phrase "We all came from Gogol's overcoat», which is used to express the humanistic traditions of Russian literature. The authorship of this expression is often attributed to Dostoevsky, but in fact the first person to say it was the French critic Eugene Vogüet, who discussed the origins of Dostoevsky’s work. Fyodor Mikhailovich himself cited this quote in a conversation with another French writer, who understood it as the writer’s own words and published them in this light in his work.
As a remedy for a “big belly” A.P. Chekhov prescribed a milk diet to his obese patients. For a week, the unfortunate people had to eat nothing and extinguish attacks of hunger with hundred-gram doses of regular milk. Indeed, due to the fact that milk is quickly and well absorbed, a glass of the drink taken in the morning reduces appetite. So, without feeling hungry, you can hold out until lunch. This property of milk was used by Anton Pavlovich in his medical practice...
Dostoevsky made extensive use of the real topography of St. Petersburg in describing the places in his novel Crime and Punishment. As the writer admitted, he compiled a description of the yard in which Raskolnikov hides the things he stole from the pawnbroker’s apartment from personal experience- when one day, while walking around the city, Dostoevsky turned into a deserted courtyard to relieve himself.
Do you know what Pushkin received as a dowry for N.N. Goncharova bronze statue? Not the most convenient dowry! But still in mid-18th century century Afanasy Abramovich Goncharov was one of richest people Russia. The sailing fabric produced at his Linen Factory was purchased for the British Navy, and the paper was considered the best in Russia. The best society came to the Linen Factory for feasts, hunts, and performances, and in 1775 Catherine herself visited here.
In memory of this event, the Goncharovs bought bronze statue Empress, cast in Berlin. The order was delivered already under Paul, when it was dangerous to honor Catherine. And then there was no longer enough money to install the monument - Afanasy Nikolaevich Goncharov, Natalia Nikolaevna’s grandfather, who inherited a huge fortune, left his grandchildren debts and a disorganized household. He came up with the idea of giving the statue to his granddaughter as a dowry.
The poet's ordeal with this statue is reflected in his letters. Pushkin calls her “copper grandmother” and tries to sell her to the State mint for remelting (scrap non-ferrous metals!). In the end, the statue was sold to the foundry of Franz Bard, apparently after the poet's death.
The bard sold the long-suffering statue to the Ekaterinoslav nobility, who erected a monument to the founder of their city on the Cathedral Square of Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). But when she finally got to the city named after her, the “copper grandmother” continued to travel, changing 3 pedestals, and after the fascist occupation she disappeared completely. Has “grandmother” found peace, or continues her movements around the world?
The main plot of N.V. Gogol’s immortal work “The Inspector General” was suggested to the author by A.S. Pushkin. These great classics were good friends. Once Alexander Sergeevich told Nikolai Vasilyevich an interesting fact from the life of the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province. It was this incident that formed the basis of the work of Nikolai Gogol.
Throughout the time he was writing The Inspector General, Gogol often wrote to Pushkin about his work, told him what stage it was in, and also repeatedly announced that he wanted to quit it. However, Pushkin forbade him to do this, so “The Inspector General” was still completed.
By the way, Pushkin, who was present at the first reading of the play, was completely delighted with it.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov In correspondence with his wife Olga Leonardovna, Knipper, in addition to standard compliments and affectionate words, used very unusual ones for her: “actress”, “dog”, “snake” and - feel the lyricism of the moment - “the crocodile of my soul”.
Alexander Griboyedov was not only a poet, but also a diplomat. In 1829, he died in Persia along with the entire diplomatic mission at the hands of religious fanatics. To atone for their guilt, the Persian delegation arrived in St. Petersburg with rich gifts, among which was the famous Shah diamond weighing 88.7 carats. Another purpose of the embassy's visit was to mitigate the indemnity imposed on Persia under the terms of the Turkmanchay Peace Treaty. Emperor Nicholas I went to meet the Persians halfway and said: “I consign the ill-fated Tehran incident to eternal oblivion!”
Lev Tolstoy was skeptical about his novels, including War and Peace. In 1871, he sent Fet a letter: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” An entry in his diary in 1908 reads: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”
The duel, in which Pushkin was mortally wounded, was not initiated by the poet. Pushkin sent a challenge to Dantes in November 1836, the impetus for which was the spread of anonymous lampoons exposing him as a cuckold. However, that duel was canceled thanks to the efforts of the poet’s friends and the proposal made by Dantes to Natalya Goncharova’s sister. But the conflict was not settled, the spread of jokes about Pushkin and his family continued, and then the poet sent Dantes’ adoptive father Heckern an extremely offensive letter in February 1837, knowing that this would entail a challenge from Dantes. And so it happened, and this duel became Pushkin’s last. By the way, Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin’s wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.
Having fallen ill, Chekhov sent a messenger to the pharmacy for castor oil capsules. The pharmacist sent him two large capsules, which Chekhov returned with the inscription “I am not a horse!” Having received the writer’s autograph, the pharmacist happily replaced them with normal capsules.
Passion Ivan Krylov there was food. Before dinner at a party, Krylov read two or three fables. After the praise, he waited for lunch. With the ease of a young man, despite all his obesity, he went to the dining room as soon as it was announced: “Dinner is served.” The Kyrgyz footman Emelyan tied a napkin under Krylov’s chin, spread the second one on his knees and stood behind the chair.
Krylov ate a huge plate of pies, three plates of fish soup, huge veal chops - a couple of plates, a fried turkey, which he called “Firebird”, and also a pickle: Nezhin cucumbers, lingonberries, cloudberries, plums, eating Antonov apples, like plums, finally began to eat Strasbourg pate, freshly prepared from the freshest butter, truffles and goose livers. After eating several plates, Krylov drank kvass, after which he washed down his food with two glasses of coffee with cream, into which you stick a spoon - it stands.
Writer V.V. Veresaev recalled that all the pleasure, all the bliss of life for Krylov lay in food. At one time he received invitations to small dinners with the Empress, about which he later spoke very unflatteringly because of the meager portions of the dishes served to the table. At one of these dinners, Krylov sat down at the table and, without greeting the hostess, began to eat. The poet who was present Zhukovsky exclaimed in surprise: “Stop it, let the queen at least treat you.” “What if he doesn’t serve you?” answered Krylov, without looking up from his plate. At dinner parties he usually ate a dish of pies, three or four plates of fish soup, several chops, roast turkey and a few "trifles." Arriving home, I ate it all with a bowl of sauerkraut and black bread.
By the way, everyone believed that the fabulist Krylov died of volvulus due to overeating. In fact, he died from double pneumonia.
Gogol had a passion for handicrafts. I knitted scarves, cut out dresses for my sisters, wove belts, and sewed scarves for myself for the summer.
Did you know that the typical Russian name Svetlana is only 200 years old? Before it was invented in 1802 by A.Kh. Vostokov, such a name did not exist. It first appeared in his romance “Svetlana and Mstislav”. Then it was fashionable to call literary heroes pseudo-Russian names. This is how Dobrada, Priyata, Miloslava appeared - purely literary, not listed in the calendar. That’s why they didn’t call children that.
Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky took the name for the heroine of his ballad from Vostokov’s romance. "Svetlana" has become very popular work. In the 60s, 70s years XIX century “Svetlana” stepped into the people from the pages of books. But there was no such name in the church books! Therefore, girls were baptized as Photinia, Faina, or Lukerya, from Greek and Latin words meaning light. It is interesting that this name is very common in other languages: Italian Chiara, German and French Clara and Claire, Italian Lucia, Celtic Fiona, Tajik Ravshana, ancient Greek Faina - all mean: light, bright. Poets simply filled a linguistic niche!
After October revolution a wave of new names swept over Russia. Svetlana was perceived as patriotic, modern and friendly name. Even Stalin named his daughter that. And in 1943, this name finally made it into the calendar.
Another interesting fact: this name also had men's uniform-Svetlana and Svet. Demyan Poor Light named his son.
How many monuments to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin are there in the world? The answer to this question is contained in the book of the Voronezh postcard collector Valery Kononov. All over the world there are them - 270 . No literary figure has ever been awarded so many monuments. The book contains illustrations of one hundred best monuments to the poet. Among them are monuments of the era Tsarist Russia and Soviet times, monuments erected abroad. Pushkin himself was never abroad, but there are monuments to him in Cuba, India, Finland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Spain, China, Chile and Norway. There are two monuments each in Hungary and Germany (in Weimar and Dusseldorf). In the USA, one was staged in 1941 in Jackson, New Jersey, the other in 1970 in Monroe, New York. V. Kononov drew one pattern: monuments to Pushkin are usually placed not on large areas, and in parks and squares.
I.A. Krylov in everyday life he was very unkempt. His disheveled, unkempt hair, stained, wrinkled shirts and other signs of sloppiness caused ridicule from his acquaintances. One day the fabulist was invited to a masquerade. - How should I dress to remain unrecognized? - he asked a lady he knew. “Wash yourself, comb your hair, and no one will recognize you,” she answered.
Seven years before death Gogol in his will he warned: “I bequeath my body not to be buried until obvious signs of decomposition appear.” They did not listen to the writer, and when the remains were reburied in 1931, a skeleton with a skull turned to one side was found in the coffin. According to other data, the skull was completely absent.
The duels were quite varied in both weapons and form. For example, few people know that there was such an interesting form as the “quadruple duel”. In this type of duel, their seconds fired after the opponents.
By the way, the most famous quadruple duel was over the ballerina Avdotya Istomina: the opponents Zavadovsky and Sheremetev had to shoot first, and the seconds Griboyedov and Yakubovich - second. That time, Yakubovich shot Griboyedov in the palm of his left hand. It was from this wound that it was later possible to identify the corpse of Griboedov, who was killed by religious fanatics during the destruction of the Russian embassy in Tehran.
An example of the wit of a fabulist Krylova serves famous case V Summer Garden where he liked to walk. Once he met a group of young people there. One of this company decided to make fun of the writer’s physique: “Look what a cloud is coming!” Krylov heard, but was not embarrassed. He looked at the sky and added sarcastically: “It’s really going to rain. That’s why the frogs croaked.”
Nikolay Karamzin belongs to a brief description of public life in Russia. When, during his trip to Europe, Russian emigrants asked Karamzin what was happening in his homeland, the writer answered with one word: “they are stealing.”
The handwriting of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy the handwriting was terrible. Only his wife could understand everything that was written, who, according to literary researchers, rewrote his “War and Peace” several times. Perhaps Lev Nikolaevich simply wrote so quickly? The hypothesis is quite realistic, given the volume of his works.
Manuscripts Alexandra Pushkina always looked very beautiful. So beautiful that it is almost impossible to read the text. Vladimir Nabokov also had the most terrible handwriting, whose sketches and famous cards could only be read by his wife.
Sergei Yesenin had the most legible handwriting, for which his publishers thanked him more than once.
The source of the expression “No brainer” is a poem Mayakovsky(“It’s clear even to a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatskys’ story “The Country of Crimson Clouds”, and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). Students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning school year the expression “no brainer” was very relevant.
Determination of Agnia Barto. She was always determined: she saw the goal - and forward, without swaying or retreating. This trait of hers appeared everywhere, in every little detail. Once upon a time in torn Civil War Spain, where Barto went to the International Congress for the Defense of Culture in 1937, where she saw firsthand what fascism was (congress meetings were held in the besieged, burning Madrid), and just before the bombing she went to buy castanets. The sky howls, the walls of the store bounce, and the writer makes a purchase! But the castanets are real, Spanish - for Agnia, who danced beautifully, this was an important souvenir. Alexei Tolstoy later asked Barto sarcastically: had she bought a fan in that store to fan herself during the next raids?..
One day Fyodor Chaliapin introduced his friend to the guests - Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin.“Meet, friends, Alexander Kuprin - the most sensitive nose in Russia.” Contemporaries even joked that Kuprin had something “of a big beast.” For example, many ladies were very offended by the writer when he actually sniffed them like a dog.
And once, a certain French perfumer, having heard from Kuprin a clear layout of the components of his new fragrance, exclaimed: “Such a rare gift and you are just a writer!” Kuprin often delighted his colleagues in the workshop with incredibly precise definitions. For example, in an argument with Bunin and Chekhov, he won with one phrase: “Young girls smell like watermelon and fresh milk. And the old women, here in the south, use wormwood, chamomile, dry cornflowers and incense.”
Anna Akhmatova I composed my first poem at the age of 11. After re-reading it “with a fresh mind,” the girl realized that she needed to improve her art of versification. Which is what I began to actively do.
However, Anna's father did not appreciate her efforts and considered it a waste of time. That is why he forbade using his real last name - Gorenko. Anna decided to choose a pseudonym maiden name his great-grandmother - Akhmatova.
Russian poets and writers came up with many new words: substance, thermometer (Lomonosov),
industry (Karamzin),
bungling (Saltykov-Shchedrin),
to fade away (Dostoevsky),
mediocrity (Northerner),
exhausted (Khlebnikov).
Pushkin has more than 70 epigraphs, Gogol has no less than 20,
Turgenev has almost the same amount.
Korney Chukovsky's real name was Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov.
Voltaire ridiculed Duke Rohan for his arrogance.
The Duke ordered his servants to beat Voltaire, which was done. Voltaire challenged the Duke to a duel, but the Duke refused because Voltaire was not a nobleman.
When starting to work on a new work, Balzac locked himself in a room for one or two months and closed the shutters tightly so that light would not penetrate through them. He wrote by candlelight, dressed in a robe, for 18 hours every day.
Mark Twain was born in 1835, when Halley's Comet flew close to the Earth. He predicted that he would die the next time she appeared. This is what happened in 1910.
Alexandre Dumas once took part in a duel where the participants drew lots, and the loser had to shoot himself. The lot went to Dumas, who retired to the next room. A shot rang out, and then Dumas returned to the participants with the words: “I shot, but missed.”
The writer Charles Dickens always slept with his head facing north. He also sat facing north when writing his great works.
French writer Guy de Maupassant was one of those who were annoyed by the Eiffel Tower. However, he dined at her restaurant every day, explaining that here the only place in Paris, from where you can't see the tower.
Beaumarchais, after performing his play The Marriage of Figaro, was arrested and imprisoned. Louis XVI, playing cards, wrote an arrest order on the seven of spades.
Jules Verne spent many hours a day studying scientific literature, writing down the facts that interest him on special cards. The card index he compiled could be the envy of the scientific community: it contained more than 20 thousand cards.
Hans Christian Andersen got angry when he was called a children's storyteller and said that he wrote fairy tales for both adults and adults. For the same reason, he ordered that there should not be a single child on his monument, where the storyteller was originally supposed to be surrounded by children.
In 1925, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bernard Shaw, who called the event "a token of gratitude for the relief he has given the world by not publishing anything this year."
American writer Emily Dickenson (1830-1886) wrote more than 900 poems during her life, only four of which were published during her lifetime.
Some biographies of Erich Maria Remarque indicate that his real name is Kramer (Remarque backwards). In fact, this is an invention of the Nazis, who, after his emigration from Germany, also spread the rumor that Remarque is the descendants of French Jews.
L.N. Tolstoy was anathematized. Once a year in all churches anathema was solemnly proclaimed to three persons: Mazepa, Grishka Otrepiev and Tolstoy.
The Belarusian poet Adam Mickiewicz was also a science fiction writer. In the novel “The History of the Future,” he wrote about acoustic devices with the help of which, sitting by the fireplace, you can listen to concerts from the city, as well as about mechanisms that allow the inhabitants of the Earth to maintain contact with creatures inhabiting other planets.
Jules Verne never visited Russia, but, nevertheless, the action of 9 of his novels takes place in Russia (in whole or in part).
The American extravagant writer Timothy Dexter wrote a book in 1802 with very peculiar language and the absence of any punctuation. In response to reader outcry, in the second edition of the book he added a special page with punctuation marks, asking readers to arrange them in the text to their liking.
Lord Byron had four pet geese that followed him everywhere, even to social gatherings. Despite being overweight and having a rather severe clubfoot, Byron was considered one of the most energetic and attractive people of his time.
Alexandre Dumas, when writing his works, used the services of many assistants - the so-called “literary blacks”. Among them, the most famous is Auguste Macquet, who invented the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo and made significant contributions to The Three Musketeers.
The author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, was sentenced to prison (in 1703) for a satirical article. He spent the day tied to pillory on the square. Those passing by were obliged to spit at him. Defoe was then forty-two years old.
Creator famous novel"The Gadfly" Ethel Lilian Voynich was a composer and considered her musical works even more significant than literary ones.
The famous Soviet writer and public figure Konstantin Simonov lisped, that is, he could not pronounce the letters “r” and “l.” This happened in childhood when, while playing, he accidentally cut his tongue with a razor, and it became difficult for him to pronounce his name: Kirill. In 1934 he took the pseudonym Konstantin.
The expression “Balzac age” arose after the publication of Balzac’s novel “A Thirty-Year-Old Woman” and is acceptable for women no older than 40 years.
Ilf and Petrov avoided cliché thoughts in a very original way - they discarded ideas that came to both of their minds at once.
One of the most prolific writers of all times was the Spaniard Lope de Vega. In addition to “Dog in the Manger,” he wrote another thousand eight hundred plays, all of them in verse.
He never worked on a single play for more than three days. At the same time, his work was well paid, so Lope de Vega was practically a multimillionaire, which is extremely rare among writers.
The famous fabulist Aesop was so poor that he sold himself into slavery to pay off his debts. At that moment he was thirty years old.
Robinson Crusoe has a sequel. In it, Robinson again suffers a shipwreck and is forced to get to Europe through all of Russia. He waits out the winter in Tobolsk for eight months. The novel has not been published in Russia since 1935.
From American writers The works of Edgar Allan Poe have been filmed the most - 114 times.
Once, at an official reception, Khrushchev called the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn Ivan Denisovich.
Chekhov sat down to write, dressed in full dress.
Kuprin, on the contrary, loved to work completely naked.
Spanish playwright Antonio Silva was burned at the stake on October 19, 1739. On the same day, his play “The Death of Phaeton” was performed at the theater.
Writer Ernest Vincent Wright has a novel called Gadsby, which is over 50,000 words long. There is not a single letter E (the most common letter in the English language) in the entire novel.
Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem wrote a collection of short stories called Absolute Emptiness. All the stories are united by the fact that they are reviews of non-existent books written by fictitious authors.
Brian Aldiss, an acquaintance of Agatha Christie, once spoke about her methods - “she would finish the book to the last chapter, then choose the most unlikely suspect and, returning to the beginning, redo some points to frame him.”
Lewis Carroll loved to communicate and be friends with little girls, but was not a pedophile, as many of his biographers claim. Often his girlfriends underestimated their age, or he himself called older ladies girls. The reason was that the morality of that era in England strictly condemned communication with a young woman alone, and girls under 14 were considered asexual, and friendship with them was completely innocent.
When the writer Arkady Averchenko brought a story on a military theme to one of the editorial offices during the First World War, the censor deleted the phrase from it: “The sky was blue.” It turns out that from these words, enemy spies could guess that what was happening in the south.
The real name of the satirist writer Grigory Gorin was Ofshtein. When asked about the reason for choosing the pseudonym, Gorin replied that it was an abbreviation: “Grisha Ofshtein decided to change his nationality.”
If you read the works of writer Stephen King, you will notice that most of his stories take place in Maine. Paradoxically, this state has the lowest crime rate in the United States.
James Barrie created the character of Peter Pan - the boy who will never grow up - for a reason. This hero became a dedication to the author’s older brother, who died the day before he turned 14 years old, and forever remained young in the memory of his mother.
Initially, on Gogol’s grave in the monastery cemetery there was a stone nicknamed Golgotha because of its resemblance to Mount Jerusalem. When they decided to destroy the cemetery, during reburial in another place they decided to install a bust of Gogol on the grave. And that same stone was subsequently placed on Bulgakov’s grave by his wife.
In this regard, Bulgakov’s phrase, which he repeatedly addressed to Gogol during his lifetime, is noteworthy: “Teacher, cover me with your overcoat.”
After the outbreak of World War II, Marina Tsvetaeva was sent for evacuation to the city of Elabuga, in Tatarstan. Boris Pasternak helped her pack her things. He brought a rope to tie up the suitcase, and, assuring of its strength, joked: “The rope will withstand everything, even if you hang yourself.” Subsequently, he was told that it was on her that Tsvetaeva hanged herself in Yelabuga.
Daria Dontsova, whose father was the Soviet writer Arkady Vasiliev, grew up surrounded by the creative intelligentsia.
Once at school she was asked to write an essay on the topic: “What was Valentin Petrovich Kataev thinking about when he wrote the story “The Lonely Sail Is White”?”, and Dontsova asked Kataev himself to help her. As a result, Daria received a bad mark, and the literature teacher wrote in her notebook: “Kataev didn’t think about this at all!”
