Iovkov, Iordan

Iovkov, Iordan 

(pseudonym of Iordan Stefanov). Born Nov. 9, 1880, in the village of Zheravna, in Sliven District; died Oct. 15, 1937, in Plovdiv; buried in Sofia. Bulgarian writer.

After graduating from secondary school, Iovkov taught in villages in Dobrudzha. He made his literary debut in 1905 with some imitative verses in the spirit of the symbolists. His Stories (vols. 1–2, 1917–18) made Iovkov well known. In his later short stories, his principal hero is the Bulgarian peasant (the collection The Last Joy, 1926). Iovkov also wrote the novella The Reaper (1920), the novel An Estate Near the Border (1934), and several plays. His short stories, which give a realistic picture of village life, are filled with admiration for the humanity of the Bulgarian peasant.

WORKS

Suhrani suchineniia, vols. 1–7. Sofia, 1956.
In Russian translation: Rasskazy. Moscow, 1957.

REFERENCES

Il’ina, G. Ia. “Iordan Iovkov.” In Ocherki istorii bolgarskoi literatury XIX-XX vv. Moscow, 1959.
Sultanov, S. Iovkov i negoviiat sviat: Literaturni etiudi. [Sofia, 1968.]
Minev, D. Iordan Iovkov: Spomeni i dokumenti, 2nd ed. Varna [1969].