Biographer's Day
вторник 16 мая 2023, 14:45
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The 16th of May is the Biographer’s Day. Celebration is connected with a random meeting in 1763 in one of the bookshops in London of the linguist Samuel Johnson and the Scottish writer James Boswell, the latter becoming for the “English Dictionary’ s father” not only a friend, but also a biographer. The biography by Boswell was so fascinating that even modern literary critics characterize this work as masterpiece of the biographical genre. You can get acquainted with the book “The Life of Samuel Johnson” in the original language in the Circulation Desk of Foreign Literature (4 Turgeneva St, aud. 356). The author's biography is the key to understanding his work. The word “biography” comes from the ancient Greek βίος - life + γράφω - I write, which means a biography of a person created by another person or by himself, if it is an autobiography. The life of an outstanding person, the motives of creativity and the difficulties of implementing ideas, the recognition and envy of contemporaries, financial problems and family disagreements, the help of friends and fortitude are reflected in biographies. The ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch can be called one of the first biographers. In his “Parallel Lives” major figures of ancient Greek history are compared with the great Romans. Giorgio Vasari is the author of the monumental work “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects”. The name Pavel Annenkov is well known, he is the first publisher and biographer of the greatest Russian poet, playwright and novelist Alexander Pushkin, Pavel Biryukov is the biographer of the writer and thinker Leo Tolstoy. A biographer recreates the picture of a past life by exploring letters, notebooks, diaries, notes on the pages of books, personal documents, summaries, rough sketches and memories. These are scattered fragments of life, to understand their meaning it is necessary to find place for every detail, resurrect the soul world of the identity and save it for descendants. Specially for the World Biographer's Day the library prepared a presentation in the VK to celebrate the merits of those who often stay in the shadows. Author: Ekaterina Sorokina
Translation: Ekaterina Solovyeva |