Sheller, Aleksandr

Sheller, Aleksandr Konstantinovich 

(pen name, A. Mikhailov). Born July 30 (Aug. 11), 1838, in St. Petersburg; died there Nov. 21 (Dec. 4), 1900. Russian writer.

Sheller studied in the department of history and philology at the University of St. Petersburg from 1857 to 1861. He first published his works in 1859. His first novels, Putrid Swamps (1864) and The Life of Shupov, His Relatives, and His Friends (1865), which were published in Sovremennik, dealt with the younger generation’s involvement in the social struggle and with the problem of “fathers and sons.”

Sheller’s many later novels were very popular with young people, including The Obnoskovs (1868), At Sixes and Sevens (1869), When Trees Are Felled Chips Fly (1871), Bread and Circuses (1875), By Hook or by Crook (1884), and Difficult Years (1892). However, Sheller’s heroes were politically moderate and interested mainly in spreading culture and education. Their limitations were sharply criticized by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

WORKS

Poln. sobr. soch., 2nd ed., vols. 1–16. St. Petersburg, 1904–05. (Critical and biographical essay by A. M. Skabichevskii.)
[“Stikhotvoreniia.”] In Poety-demokraty 1870–1880 gg. Leningrad, 1968. (Introductory article by B. L. Bessonov.)

REFERENCES

Miller, O. F. A. K. Sheller (Mikhailov). St. Petersburg, 1889.
Faresov, A. I. A. K. Sheller: Biografiia i moi o nem vospominaniia. St. Petersburg, 1901.

G. M. MIRONOV