Aleksei Zhemchuzhnikov

Zhemchuzhnikov, Aleksei Mikhailovich 

Born Feb. 10 (22), 1821, in Pochep, present-day Briansk Oblast; died Mar. 25 (Apr. 7), 1908, in Tambov. Russian poet; member of the gentry.

Zhemchuzhnikov served in the Senate until 1858, after which he lived abroad for many years. His first work appeared in 1850, and he subsequently published in Sovremennik (The Contemporary), Otechestvennye zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), andlskra (Spark). Together with his brother V. M. Zhemchuzhnikov and A. K. Tolstoy, he created the works published under the collective pseudonym Koz’ma Prutkov. In its use of civic themes and simplicity of form, his poetry follows the tradition of N. A. Nekrasov. His nature lyrics celebrate the beauty of the Russian countryside.

WORKS

Izbrannye proizyedeniia. Introduction and notes by E. Pokusaev. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963.

REFERENCE

Istoriia russkoi literatury XIX v: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel. Moscow-Leningrad, 1962.