Biography of Samuil Marshak for children. Marshak. Biography. A fun journey from A to Z

Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak

(1887-1964)

Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak was born on November 3 (October 22 - according to the old style), 1887 in the city of Voronezh. His father, Yakov Mironovich, a master chemist by profession, was a man of versatile abilities, he was very fond of literature and knew several foreign languages. He managed to instill in his children from an early age the desire for knowledge, respect for human labor, for any skill.

The poet's mother, Evgenia Borisovna, from childhood and for life was in love with literature, with the novels of Turgenev, Goncharov, Dickens, Nekrasov's poems.

This love of reading was passed on from parents to their children. There were six children in the family. Three of them became famous writers, and the fame of the second son - Samuel - crossed the borders of the country and glorified him all over the world.

Marshak's brother Mikhail Ilyin (Ilya Yakovlevich Marshak) is the author of the books "The Sun on the Page", "One Hundred Thousand Whys", "Stories about what surrounds you." And his sister Elena Ilyina (Liya Yakovlevna Marshak-Preis) wrote the amazing story "The Fourth Height", which tells about the life and exploits of Guli Koroleva.

Marshak's early childhood and school years were spent in the town of Ostrogozhsk near Voronezh, in a workers' settlement near the plant. The future poet fell in love with poetry early. At the age of four, he already tried to compose poetic lines himself. And at the age of eleven, when he began to study at the gymnasium, Samuel was already translating the ancient Roman poet Horace.

When Marshak was 15 years old, his fate suddenly changed. One of Marshak's poetry notebooks fell into the hands of Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov, a well-known Russian critic and art critic, who took an ardent part in the fate of the young man. Marshak found himself in the northern capital, in a large house where the most famous artists, musicians, and writers of that time used to be. He saw the magnificent St. Petersburg museums, visited exhibitions, theaters and concerts, studied at the best metropolitan gymnasium. In the St. Petersburg Public Library, where Stasov worked, young Marshak spent whole days looking at old books and engravings.

In 1904, in the house of Stasov, Marshak met Maxim Gorky, who treated him with great interest. Learning that the young man had weak lungs, Alexei Maksimovich invited him to live at his dacha in Yalta. Here, in the Peshkov family, Marshak lived for two years. Marshak's friendship with Gorky then continued throughout his life, and Alexei Maksimovich helped the poet a lot when, as an adult, Marshak began to write for children and gather young writers around him.

Returning from Yalta to St. Petersburg, Marshak began to independently make his way into literature, to collaborate in various magazines and almanacs.

A few years later, to complete his education, Marshak went to study in England. In order to better learn the language, in order to hear the people's speech, he made a long journey on foot through the English provinces. While living in England, he came to know and love English poetry and began translating English poets and folk ballads and songs.

In the summer of 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Marshak returned to Russia. During the war and during the years of the revolution, Samuil Yakovlevich lived in the south of Russia - in Voronezh and Krasnodar. Here at that time there were many refugee children from those regions that were occupied by the Germans, many homeless children. Marshak did a great job of organizing help for children. In Krasnodar, he organized a whole "Children's Town" - a complex of children's institutions with a school, kindergartens, a library, amateur art circles and a theater for children. Together with the poetess E.I. Vasilyeva Marshak wrote plays for children "The Tale of the Goat", "Cat's House" and others. Marshak's work in children's literature began with them.

In 1922, Marshak returned to Petrograd, where he created his first original fairy tales in verse. In the 20s, his books were published: "Children in a Cage", "Fire", "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse", "Luggage", "Mail", "The Story of an Unknown Hero", "Mr. Twister", "The House that built Jack "and many other books of poetry, which later became classics of children's reading.

But Samuil Yakovlevich not only wrote children's books. He was an outstanding editor and organizer of children's literature. He united around himself such talented children's writers and poets as Agniya Barto, Sergei Mikhalkov, Boris Zhitkov, Arkady Gaidar, Leonid Panteleev and many others and helped create the world's first children's book publishing house.

Marshak's poetic gift is versatile and varied. During the Great Patriotic War, S.Ya. Marshak published satirical epigrams, parodies, and pamphlets in newspapers that ridiculed and denounced the enemy.

Throughout his life, Marshak translated a lot. Entire volumes in his collected works are taken up by transcriptions from English and Scottish poets, from complete translations of Shakespeare's sonnets to examples of children's poetry. His translations, as a rule, remain either unsurpassed or among the best today.

The result of the great creative experience of the writer was a collection of articles "Education with a word", published in 1961. In the same year, his autobiographical novel "At the Beginning of Life" was published.

The last book of the writer - "Selected Lyrics" - was published in 1963. The poems included in this book were created over many years.

Marshak died on July 4, 1964 in Moscow. Until the last day he worked, he ruled proofreading in the hospital, making sure that he was honorably responsible for his every word.

One of the last poems by S.Ya. Marshak was this:

The world will disappear at that very hour,

When I disappear

How he died for your eyes,

Departed friends.

There will be no sun and moon,

All flowers fade.

There won't even be silence

There will be no darkness...

No, the world will exist

And even if I'm not in it,

But I managed to embrace the whole world,

All millions of years.

I thought, I felt, I lived

And all that I could, comprehended,

And this right deserved

For your immortal moment.
(1963)

The writer lived a long life, wrote many poems, plays, fairy tales, literary articles. Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky, welcoming Marshak at one of the anniversaries, said that in his person he welcomed five Marshaks at once: a children's poet, playwright, lyric poet, translator and satirist. And the literary critic S. Sivokon added five more to these five: prose writer, critic, editor, teacher, theorist of children's literature. "Ten Marshaks, - writes S. Sivokon, - embodied in one - these are not ten heads of a fairy-tale snake, arguing with each other and preventing him from living. No, these are ten sides of a multifaceted, but surprisingly integral personality, whose name is Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak."

Samuel Marshak is still one of the main children's writers in Russia, it is his poems that become the very first in life for many children. Years pass, eras and generations change, but his works are always modern and invariably enjoy great popularity among young readers.

Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak - Soviet poet, writer and playwright, literary critic and translator. He was born on November 3, 1887 in Voronezh. From his ancestor, who was a rabbi, the boy received the surname Marshak. It is an abbreviation, stands for "Moraine Rabbeinu Shlomo Kluger." In translation, this means "our teacher, our lord, Solomon the Wise."

Childhood and youth

The future poet was born in the family of a soap factory technician. Samuel began to write poetry at an early age, among his peers he was considered a child prodigy. There were many children in the family, in the evenings they liked to listen to interesting stories of their elder brother Moses. Even then, Marshak began to come up with original plot branches in each story.

In 1902, the boy moved to St. Petersburg with his family. There Marshak met the art critic V.V. Stasov. A capable guy made a tremendous impression on him, as a result of which Gorky and Chaliapin learned about him. Since 1904, he even lived in the family of the first of them in Yalta, where the poet had to move for health reasons. There he completed his studies at the gymnasium.

The beginning of the creative path

At the age of nineteen, Samuel began to earn his knowledge. He wrote poetry and also taught. At the same time, he makes a trip to the Middle East, and it was there that the best works of the poet were born. This happened in 1911.

A year later, the young man became a student at the University of London, where he studied for four years. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Marshak began to publish in various publications, including Russian Thought and Severnye Zapiski. He does not print his own poems, but translations of famous British poets.

Other achievements

In 1920 the writer lives in Krasnodar. There he is engaged in the arrangement of cultural institutions for children. Thanks to him, the first children's theaters were created, and Marshak also writes plays for children to perform. Three years after that, his first books in verse saw the light, among them was the most famous work, The House That Jack Built.

In 1922, the guy went to Petrograd with his friend, the folklorist Kapitsa. Together they manage the children's studio, publish the magazine "Sparrow", which publishes the most famous authors. In the same period, Samuel wrote his best fairy tales, including "Smart Things", "Twelve Months" and others. In addition to children's works, the writer also creates political and satirical pamphlets that resonate in the hearts of adults. Among them, it is worth mentioning such works as "All the Year Round", "Military Mail" and "Mr. Twister".

In 1935, Samuil became Gorky's partner in a report at the First Congress of Writers of the USSR. A year after that, a large collection of his fairy tales was published. In parallel with this, the poet does not stop translating his favorite works of foreign poets; the poems of R. Burns occupied a special place in his life. Marshak also paid attention to Shakespeare, in 1948 a whole book of his translations of sonnets was published.

Family and personal life

Little is known about the personal and family life of the writer. He was married to Sophia Milvidskaya, the couple had three children. Two of them died at a young age, only their son Immanuel survived. He lived from 1017 to 1977, was a doctor of technical sciences and a member of the writers' union. The son of Samuel translated two novels by the famous English writer Jane Austen.

During his life, Marshak received several State Prizes of the USSR, was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and the Order of the Patriotic War. In 1960, the poet's autobiographical story called "At the Beginning of Life" saw the light of day. The last book was a collection of poems "Selected Lyrics", he was also awarded the Lenin Prize.

The writer died in 1964 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. It happened on July 4th. Today, in many cities there are streets and memorials dedicated to the memory of the poet.

He wrote until his last breath, because he was crazy about literature. Poetry and prose occupied a huge place in his life, which could not be replaced by personal life and family relationships. It was a true passion that was transmitted to all his readers. The rich language of Marshak allows both children and adults to understand it. Everyone can find something for themselves in his work.

The stories described by Marshak sometimes have a real image, in other cases he completely invented the plot. Kids like the fact that in the poet's works all the characters are perfectly drawn, they easily represent the events taking place. There is enough humor in the books, the writer's language is easy and accessible to everyone.

One of the main thoughts in the works of Samuel is readiness for a feat. All of his characters find themselves in unusual circumstances, where they show their most amazing qualities. Even an ordinary student or a postman can become a hero, and this inspires children to become strong and courageous personalities and achieve success.

Great about verses:

Poetry is like painting: one work will captivate you more if you look at it closely, and another if you move further away.

Little cutesy poems irritate the nerves more than the creak of unoiled wheels.

The most valuable thing in life and in poetry is that which has broken.

Marina Tsvetaeva

Of all the arts, poetry is most tempted to replace its own idiosyncratic beauty with stolen glitter.

Humboldt W.

Poems succeed if they are created with spiritual clarity.

The writing of poetry is closer to worship than is commonly believed.

If only you knew from what rubbish Poems grow without shame... Like a dandelion near a fence, Like burdocks and quinoa.

A. A. Akhmatova

Poetry is not in verses alone: ​​it is spilled everywhere, it is around us. Take a look at these trees, at this sky - beauty and life breathe from everywhere, and where there is beauty and life, there is poetry.

I. S. Turgenev

For many people, writing poetry is a growing pain of the mind.

G. Lichtenberg

A beautiful verse is like a bow drawn through the sonorous fibers of our being. Not our own - our thoughts make the poet sing inside us. Telling us about the woman he loves, he delightfully awakens in our souls our love and our sorrow. He is a wizard. Understanding him, we become poets like him.

Where graceful verses flow, there is no place for vainglory.

Murasaki Shikibu

I turn to Russian versification. I think that over time we will turn to blank verse. There are too few rhymes in Russian. One calls the other. The flame inevitably drags the stone behind it. Because of the feeling, art certainly peeps out. Who is not tired of love and blood, difficult and wonderful, faithful and hypocritical, and so on.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

- ... Are your poems good, tell yourself?
- Monstrous! Ivan suddenly said boldly and frankly.
- Do not write anymore! the visitor asked pleadingly.
I promise and I swear! - solemnly said Ivan ...

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. "The Master and Margarita"

We all write poetry; poets differ from the rest only in that they write them with words.

John Fowles. "The French Lieutenant's Mistress"

Every poem is a veil stretched out on the points of a few words. These words shine like stars, because of them the poem exists.

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok

The poets of antiquity, unlike modern ones, rarely wrote more than a dozen poems during their long lives. It is understandable: they were all excellent magicians and did not like to waste themselves on trifles. Therefore, behind every poetic work of those times, a whole Universe is certainly hidden, filled with miracles - often dangerous for someone who inadvertently wakes dormant lines.

Max Fry. "The Talking Dead"

To one of my clumsy hippos-poems, I attached such a heavenly tail: ...

Mayakovsky! Your poems do not warm, do not excite, do not infect!
- My poems are not a stove, not a sea and not a plague!

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky

Poems are our inner music, clothed in words, permeated with thin strings of meanings and dreams, and therefore drive away critics. They are but miserable drinkers of poetry. What can a critic say about the depths of your soul? Don't let his vulgar groping hands in there. Let the verses seem to him an absurd lowing, a chaotic jumble of words. For us, this is a song of freedom from tedious reason, a glorious song that sounds on the snow-white slopes of our amazing soul.

Boris Krieger. "A Thousand Lives"

Poems are the thrill of the heart, the excitement of the soul and tears. And tears are nothing but pure poetry that has rejected the word.

According to Korney Chukovsky, poetry for Marshak was "a passionate passion, even an obsession." Marshak not only wrote poetry for children and adults, but also translated poets from different countries, participated in the creation of one of the first children's theaters in the Soviet Union and the first publishing house for children.

“I started writing poetry even before I learned to write”

Samuil Marshak was born in 1887 in Voronezh. The family moved several times, in 1900 they settled in Ostrogozhsk for a long time. Here Marshak entered the gymnasium, here he began to write his first works. “I started writing poetry even before I learned to write”, the poet recalled. Fascinated by ancient Roman and ancient Greek poetry, Marshak, already in the lower grades of the gymnasium, translated Horace's poem "In whom is salvation."

When the father of the future poet, Yakov Marshak, found a job in St. Petersburg, the whole family moved to the capital. Only Samuil Marshak and his younger brother remained in Ostrogozhsk: Jewish origin could prevent them from entering the capital's gymnasium. Marshak came to his parents for the holidays. During one of his visits, he accidentally met Vladimir Stasov, a well-known critic and art critic. Stasov helped the future poet to transfer to the St. Petersburg gymnasium - one of the few where, after the education reform, ancient languages ​​were taught.

While visiting Stasov, Samuil Marshak got acquainted with the creative intelligentsia of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg - composers and artists, writers and professors. In 1904, a critic introduced Marshak to Fyodor Chaliapin and Maxim Gorky. A month later, Gorky placed him in the Yalta gymnasium: since moving to St. Petersburg, Samuil Marshak was often ill. The following year, the young poet lived at the Peshkovs' dacha near Yalta. After the revolution of 1905, the writer's family left Yalta abroad, and Marshak returned to St. Petersburg.

Samuil Marshak. 1962 Photo: aif.ru

Samuil Marshak. Photo: s-marshak.ru

Samuil Marshak with children. Photo: aif.ru

"Playground"

In 1911 Samuil Marshak traveled to Turkey, Greece, Syria, Palestine. The poet went to the countries of the Mediterranean as a correspondent for the St. Petersburg publications Vseobshchaya Gazeta and Blue Journal. Returning from a trip, he wrote a cycle of poems "Palestine".

Noisy open taverns,
The tunes of distant lands are heard,
Goes, swaying, to the ancient city
Behind the caravan is a caravan.
But let the visions of mortal life
Closed the past like smoke
Millenniums are unchanged
Your hills, Jerusalem!
And there will be slopes and valleys
Keep here the memory of antiquity,
When the last ruins
They will fall, swept away for centuries.

Samuil Marshak, excerpt from the poem "Jerusalem"

During the trip, Samuil Marshak met his future wife Sophia Milvidskaya. Shortly after the wedding, the young couple went to England to study at the University of London.

“Perhaps, the university library made friends with English poetry the most. In cramped, closet-filled rooms overlooking the business-like Thames, swarming with barges and steamers, I first learned what I later translated - Shakespeare's sonnets, poems by William Blake, Robert Burns, John Keats, Robert Browning, Kipling.

During the holidays they traveled around England, the poet studied English folklore and translated ballads. He wrote: “I translated not by order, but by love - just like I wrote my own lyrical poems”.

Samuil Marshak and Karpis Surenyan. Photo: krisphoto.ru

Writer Samuil Marshak, artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and actor Solomon Mikhoels. 1940 Photo: aif.ru

Samuil Marshak and Alexander Tvardovsky. Photo: smolensklib.ru

In 1914 Samuil Marshak returned to Russia. He published his translations in the journals Northern Notes and Russian Thought. During the war years, the family often moved from place to place, and after the revolution, the Marshaks settled in Yekaterinodar (today Krasnodar): the poet's father served there.

In 1920, Krasnodar writers, artists and composers, among whom was Marshak, organized one of the country's first theaters for children. Soon it turned into a "Children's Town" with a kindergarten, a school, a library and circles.

“The curtain is parting. We are ready for Petrushka to pull the children closer to him - to the screen. Samuil Yakovlevich - the main "responsible" for this moment - feels that the moment has come, that the children are about to get up and run to the screen and thereby disrupt the course of action. And then he gets up and makes, drawing attention to himself, a mischievous gesture - they say, let's go closer, but quietly and silently. Parsley involves the guys in a common game. All spectators and actors merge together. Laughter is mighty, the fantasy of children flares up. Everything is real! Everyone understands!”

Actress Anna Bogdanova

"Other Literature"

In the 1920s, Samuil Marshak and his family returned to St. Petersburg. Together with folklorist Olga Kapitsa, he ran a children's writers' studio at the Institute of Preschool Education. Marshak began to write his first poetic tales - "Fire", "Mail", "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse" - and translate English children's folklore.

The poet became the de facto editor of one of the first Soviet children's magazines - "Sparrow" (later it became known as "New Robinson"). The magazine talked about nature, technical achievements of those years and offered young readers answers to many questions. The publication published a regular column - "Wandering Photographer" by Boris Zhitkov, "Forest Newspaper" by Vitaly Bianchi, “In the Laboratory of the“ New Robinson ”of M. Ilyin (Ilya Marshak, who worked under a pseudonym). One of the first editorials said: “Fairy tales, fairies, elves and kings will not interest the modern child. He needs a different literature - realistic literature, literature that draws its source from life, calling to life.. In the 1930s, Samuil Marshak, together with Maxim Gorky, created the first publishing house for children's literature (Detizdat).

In 1938 the poet moved to Moscow. During the years of the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars, the poet collaborated with newspapers: he wrote epigrams and political pamphlets. For poetic captions for posters and cartoons in 1942, Samuil Marshak received the first Stalin Prize. Cover of Samuil Marshak's book "Smart Things". Artist May Miturich. Publishing house "Children's Literature". 1966

In the post-war years, books of his poems were published - “Military Post”, “Fairy Tale”, an encyclopedia in verse “From A to Z”. In theaters for children, performances based on the works of Marshak "Twelve Months", "Cat's House", "Smart Things" were staged.

In the 1950s, Samuil Marshak traveled around England, he translated the sonnets of William Shakespeare, the poems of Rudyard Kipling, George Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, the works of Alan Milne and Gianni Rodari. For the translation of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, Samuil Marshak received the title of honorary citizen of Scotland.

In 1963, Samuil Marshak's last book, Selected Lyrics, was published. The writer died in Moscow in 1964. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak (1887-1964) - poet, playwright, translator, literary critic.
He was born in Voronezh in the family of a factory technician and a talented inventor. The father supported in children the desire for knowledge, interest in the world, in people. Samuil spent his early childhood and school years in the town of Ostrogozhsk near Voronezh. In the gymnasium, the teacher of literature instilled a love for classical poetry, encouraged the first literary experiments of the future poet. One of Marshak's poetry notebooks fell into the hands of V. Stasov, a well-known Russian critic and art critic, who took an ardent part in the fate of the young man. With the help of Stasov, he moved to St. Petersburg, entered one of the best gymnasiums to study. He spent whole days in the public library where Stasov worked.
In 1904, in the house of Stasov, Marshak met M. Gorky, who treated him with great interest. Gorky invited him to his dacha on the Black Sea, where Marshak was treated, studied, read a lot, met interesting people. When the Gorky family was forced to leave the Crimea due to the repressions of the tsarist government after the 1905 revolution, Marshak returned to St. Petersburg. By that time, his father had also moved there.
Labor youth began: going to lessons, collaborating in magazines and almanacs.
A few years later, to complete his education, Marshak went to study in England, first at the Polytechnic, then at the University of London. During the holidays he traveled a lot on foot in England, listening to English folk songs. Even then he began to work on translations of English ballads, which later glorified him.
In 1914, Marshak returned to his homeland, worked in the provinces, published his translations in the journals Northern Notes and Russian Thought. During the war years, he was involved in helping refugee children.
From the beginning of the 1920s, he participated in the organization of orphanages in Krasnodar, created a children's theater, in which his work as a children's writer began.
In 1923, returning to Petrograd, he wrote his first original fairy tales in verse - "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse", "Fire", "Mail", translated children's folk songs from English - "The House That Jack Built", etc. In addition, he headed one of the first Soviet children's magazines - "New Robinson", around which talented children's writers gathered. Marshak was the first employee of M. Gorky, who created the Children's Literature Publishing House (Detgiz).
During the Patriotic War, Marshak actively collaborated in newspapers, ridiculing the enemy in parodies, epigrams, and political pamphlets. In the post-war years, books of his poems "Military Post", "Fairy Tale", a poetic encyclopedia "Merry Journey from A to Z" were published.
Marshak did a lot of translations of Shakespeare's sonnets and songs of R. Burns, translated poems by J. Keats, R. Kipling, W. Wadsworth, etc. For translations from Robert Burns, Marshak was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Scotland.
Among Marshak's dramatic works, the fairy-tale plays "Twelve Months", "Smart Things", "Cat's House" are especially popular.
Marshak's books have been translated into many languages ​​of the world. He is a laureate of Lenin (1963) and four Stalin Prizes.