Korney Chukovsky | |
|---|---|
 Chukovsky in 1958 | |
| Native name | Корней Васильевич Чуковский |
| Born | Nikolay Vasilyevich Korneychukov (1882-03-31)31 March 1882 |
| Died | 28 October 1969(1969-10-28) (aged 87) |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, translator, literary critic, journalist |
Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (Russian:Корней Иванович Чуковский,IPA:[kɐrˈnʲejɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕtɕʊˈkofskʲɪj]ⓘ; 31 MarchNS 1882 – 28 October 1969) was one of the most popularchildren's poets in theRussian language.[1] His catchy rhythms, inventive rhymes and absurd characters have invited comparisons with the American children's authorDr. Seuss.[2][3] Chukovsky's poemsTarakanische ("The Monster Cockroach"),Krokodil ("Crocodile"),Telefon ("The Telephone"),Chukokkala, andMoydodyr ("Wash-'em-Clean") have been favorites with many generations ofRussophone children. Lines from his poems, in particularTelefon, have become universal catch-phrases in the Russian media and everyday conversation. He adapted theDoctor Dolittle stories into a book-length Russian poem asDoctor Aybolit ("Dr. Ow-It-Hurts"), and translated a substantial portion of theMother Goose canon into Russian asAngliyskiye Narodnyye Pesenki ("English Folk Rhymes"). He also wrote very popular translations ofWalt Whitman,Mark Twain,Oscar Wilde,Rudyard Kipling,O. Henry, and other authors,[4] and was an influentialliterary critic andessayist.
Originally namedNikolay Vasilyevich Korneychukov (Russian:Николай Васильевич Корнейчуков), the writer reworked his original family name into his now familiar pen-name while working as a journalist atOdessa News in 1901. He was born inSaint Petersburg as the illegitimate son of Yekaterina Osipovna Korneychukova and of Emmanuil Solomonovich Levenson, a man from a wealthy RussianJewish family (his legitimate grandson was mathematicianVladimir Rokhlin). Levenson's family did not permit his marriage to Korneychukova, and the couple was eventually forced to separate. Korneychukova moved to Odessa with her two children, Nikolay and his sister Marussia.[5] Levenson supported them financially for some time, until his marriage to another woman. Nikolay studied at theOdessagymnasium, where one of his classmates was VladimirZe'ev Jabotinsky. Later, the gymnasium expelled Nikolay for his "low origin" (a euphemism for illegitimacy). He had to obtain hissecondary-school anduniversity diplomas by correspondence.
He taught himselfEnglish and, in 1903–05, he served as theLondoncorrespondent of an Odessa newspaper, although he spent most of his time at the British Library instead of in the parliamentary press gallery. Back inRussia, Chukovsky started translating English works and published several analyses of contemporary European authors, which brought him in touch with leading personalities ofRussian literature and secured the friendship ofAlexander Blok. Chukovsky's English was not idiomatic - he had taught himself to speak it by reading and he thus pronounced English words in a distinctly odd manner, and it was difficult for people to understand him inEngland.[6] His influence on Russian literary society of the 1890s is immortalized by satirical verses ofSasha Chorny, includingKorney Belinsky (an allusion to the famous criticVissarion Belinsky (1811–1848)). Korney Chukovsky published several notable literary titles, includingFrom Chekhov to Our Days (1908),Critique stories (1911) andFaces and masks (1914). He also published a satirical magazine calledSignal (1905–1906) and was arrested for "insulting theruling house", but was acquitted after six months of investigative incarceration.
It was at that period that Chukovsky produced his first fantasies for children. The girl from his famous fairy tale poem "Crocodile" was inspired by Lyalya, daughter of his long-time friend, publisherZinovii Grzhebin.[7] A bibliographical sketch for Chukovsky inThe NewEncyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia andMerriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature characterized "Crocodile", along with other Chukovsky's verse tales as follows, "clockwork rhythms and air of mischief and lightness in effect dispelled the plodding stodginess that had characterized pre-revolutionary children's poetry."[8] Subsequently, they were adapted for theatre andanimated films, with Chukovsky as one of the collaborators.Sergei Prokofiev and other composers even adapted some of his poems foropera andballet. His works were popular with emigre children as well, asVladimir Nabokov's complimentary letter to Chukovsky attests.
During the Soviet period, Chukovsky edited the complete works ofNikolay Nekrasov and publishedFrom Two to Five (1933), a popular guidebook to the language of children.
In addition to Nekrasov, Chukovsky studied the biographies and works of a number of other 19th-century writers (Chekhov,Dostoevsky,Sleptsov). This is the subject of his bookPeople and Books of the Sixties.
As his diaries attest, Chukovsky used his popularity to help the authors persecuted by the regime includingAnna Akhmatova,Mikhail Zoshchenko,Alexander Galich andAleksandr Solzhenitsyn.[citation needed] He was the only Soviet writer who officially congratulatedBoris Pasternak on winning theNobel Prize.
At one point his fantastic writings for children (Bibigon,Moydodyr, Barmaley fromDoctor Aybolit, etc.) were under severe criticism.Nadezhda Krupskaya was an initiator of this campaign against "Chukovshshina",[9] but criticism also came also from children's writerAgniya Barto.[citation needed]
Chukovsky extensively wrote about the translation process and critiqued other translators. In 1919, he co-wrote withNikolai Gumilev a brochure calledPrintsipy khudozhestvennogo perevoda (English:Principles of Artistic Translation). In 1920, Chukovsky revised it, and he substantially rewrote and expanded it numerous times throughout his life without Gumilev.[10] Chukovsky's subsequent revisions were done in 1930 (re-titling itIskusstvo perevoda [English:The Art of Translation]), 1936, 1941 (re-titling itVysokoe iskusstvo [English:A High Art]), 1964, and his final revision was published in hisCollected Works in 1965–1967.[11] In 1984, Lauren G. Leighton published her English translation of Chukovsky's final revision, and titled itThe Art of Translation: Kornei Chukovsky's A High Art.
Starting in the 1930s, Chukovsky lived in the writers' village ofPeredelkino nearMoscow, where he is now buried.
He died on October 28, 1969 from viralhepatitis in Kuntsevo Hospital.
For his works on the life of Nekrasov he was awarded aDoktor nauk in philology. He also received theLenin Prize in 1962 for his book,Mastery of Nekrasov and anhonorary doctorate fromUniversity of Oxford in 1962.
On May 26, 1903, Chukovsky married Maria (Maria Borisovna Chukovskaya) née Goldfeld, daughter of Aron-Ber and Tauba.
His daughter,Lydia Chukovskaya (1907–1996), is remembered as a noted writer, memoirist, philologist and lifelong assistant and secretary of the poetAnna Akhmatova.
His son,Nikolai Chukovsky [ru] (1904–1965) was a writer and translator.
His son Boris (1910—1941 wentmissing in action during World War II.
His daughterMaria [ru] (1920–1931), affectionately called "Mura", a character in some of his children's poems and stories, died in her childhood fromtuberculosis.
MathematicianVladimir Abramovich Rokhlin was his nephew.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
