A. Volkov - the famous children's writer

A. Volkov is an excellent scientist, teacher and translator who for his career has written several popular scientific works, historical novels and fantastic stories, and translated into Russian many works of popular foreign authors. A wide range of readers, he became known for a series of children's books written on the motives of the fairy tale of the American writer Baum, narrating about the wizard from Oz.

Short biography: Volkov AM (childhood)

The writer was born June 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in a family of simple estate. His father was a feldwebel in retirement, and his mother earned the work of dressmakers, both knew the letter, so at the age of three little Sasha already knew how to read. His mother instilled in him love of fairy tales, which, according to the writer's recollections, knew many of them and always told her son in an interesting and new way at a free time.

The family lived very modestly and there was not much luxury in the house like books. In order to be able to read as much as possible and earn a little, the boy at the age of eight years learned to closely interlace the books of his neighbors and his father's colleagues. A. Volkov since childhood read works by such masters of the pen as Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Nikitin, Jules Verne, Dickens, Mine Reed. Creativity of these writers significantly influenced his fate in the future.

Youth

At the age of twelve, the talented boy graduated with honors from the city school, where, at the end of the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, he entered the service as a teacher of mathematics. Beginning in 1910, Alexander worked as a teacher first in Kolyvan, and then returned to his native Ust-Kamenogorsk, where in 1915 he met his future wife, the dance teacher Kaleria Gubina. Having the ability not only to exact sciences, A. Volkov independently studied German and French and began to try his hand as an interpreter.

The Soviet period

Volkov published his first poems in 1917 in the city newspaper Sibirsky Svet, and in 1918 he took an active part in the creation of the newspaper The Friend of the People. Infiltrating revolutionary ideas about universal education, Volkov teaches at the courses of teachers in Ust-Kamenogorsk and concurrently writes comedy plays, which are put in theaters for a children's audience. Having moved to Yaroslavl in the twenties, he holds the post of the head of the school and in absentia he graduated from the mathematical faculty of the city pedagogical institute. In the thirties, A. Volkov with his wife and two sons moved to Moscow to head the training part of the Faculty of Work.

At the same time for six months with a small, after completing the training course, external exams at the Moscow University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. In 1931, the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold was created, in which Volkov worked for many years. First as a teacher, and later as an assistant professor of higher mathematics. In addition to scientific and teaching activities, Volkov throughout his life actively engaged in literary creation.

Volkov Alexander Melentievich: books, biography of the writer

The first samples of Volkov's pen were back in the twelve years, inspired by Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe", he tries to write his own adventure novel. Then he is fond of poetry, whose poetic fruits are published in 1916-1917 under the general title "Dreams" in the newspaper "Siberian Light".

During his life in Ust-Kamenogorsk and Yaroslavl, Volkov also writes a number of plays for the children's audience: Village School, Eagle's Beak, Fern Flower, Home Teacher, In the Deaf Corner. These and other plays in the twenties were staged in the city theaters and enjoyed immense popularity among young spectators.

In 1937 A. Volkov completed work on the historical story "The Miraculous Ball", which was published in 1940. The work tells about a political prisoner of the times of the Russian Empress Elizabeth, who managed to leave the dungeon with the help of a balloon (the original name is "The First Aeronaut").

Emerald city and its heroes

In the same year, wishing to practice his English, Alexander Melentevich takes up the translation of the fairy tale "The Amazing Wizard of Oz". Keen on the translation process and the plot of the fairy tale, Volkov decides to make it more colorful, he gives the characters new qualities and adds adventures. The manuscript of the book's processing Volkov sent for approval to the children's writer Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, who not only approved it, but strongly recommended the author to engage in literary activity on a professional basis. In 1939, a book called "The Wizard of the Emerald City" with illustrations by the artist Nikolai Radlov was published, it won the hearts of many readers and was the beginning of the famous cycle with the same name. In 1941 Volkov Alexander Melentevich became a member of the organization of professional writers of the Soviet Union.

Military period

The theme of adventure and fantastic stories during the war years goes to another plane, all the works of the author of this period have a military and patriotic orientation. So, in the works of "Invisible Fighters" in 1942 and "Aircraft in the War" in 1946, we are talking about the importance of mathematics in modern types of weapons. Also Volkov writes a lot of patriotic plays and poems for the media. His historical works "Glorious Pages on the History of Russian Artillery" and "Mathematics in Military Affairs" also underscore the strength and invincibility of the Soviet army.

In the post-war period, historical novels are published from the pen of the author: "Two Brothers", "Architects", "Wanderings", as well as works of a sci-fi character "Earth and Sky: Entertaining Stories on Geography and Astronomy", "Travelers in the Third Millennium ".

Return to the magic country

In 1963, the author, inspired by the success of the first book about the adventures in the magic country of the girl Elli, the doggy Totoshka and their fairy friends, publishes books that continue the fabulous cycle: "Oorfene Deuce and his Wooden Soldiers", "The Seven Underground Kings" (1967) "The Fiery God of the Marran" (1968), "Yellow Fog" (1970), "The Secret of the Forgotten Castle". All books Alexander Volkov writes as completely independent, the works are united only by the main characters of the fairy-tale country. Even Ellie's girl, growing up, could no longer return to the magical world and to help fairy friends comes the new heroine Annie with the dog Artoshka.

Alexander Melentievich died in 1977 on July 3, leaving behind a rich legacy in the form of translations of works by famous foreign authors, popular scientific works, historical novels and, of course, the adventures of the heroes of the Emerald City.