Valentin Berestov is a Russian poet, an outstanding publicist, translator, writer, on whose good verses more than one generation of babies has grown.
Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich: biography
A resident of the city of Meshchovsk (Kaluga region), Valentin was born on April 1, 1928. Brought up by loving parents, kind grandfathers and grandmothers, the boy learned to read very early.
And with the first letters Valentine was introduced by a blind great-grandmother. When she received the Izvestia newspaper by subscription, she asked the boy to describe in words the caricatures published on the pages of the publication. One of them depicted a mountain cliff rising in the middle of a raging sea with 4 huge letters. Great-grandmother asked: “Are the three letters the same and located together? Not otherwise than the USSR! ” This was the first word that the future poet managed to read on his own.
Life in evacuation
When the boy was 13 years old, his family was evacuated from Meshchovsk to Tashkent - the capital of Uzbekistan. There, Valentin was lucky to meet Korney Chukovsky, Anna Akhmatova and make friends with Moore - the son of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. Valentin and his two friends studied literary studies with the daughter of Korney Chukovsky - Lydia, and Nadezhda Mandelstam taught English to the children .
Korney Chukovsky, who subsequently played a significant role in the fate of Berestov, reacted with great care and sincere interest to the beginning of the creative path of the young author. According to the prominent writer, Valentin, a frail 14-year-old teenager, was endowed with enormous talent, a refined sense of style, persistent capacity for work and a high innate culture.
Valentin Berestov: poems and stories
In 1944, the Berestovs changed their place of residence in the suburbs. After successfully graduating from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and postgraduate studies at the Institute of Ethnography, Valentin took part in numerous archaeological excavations. Contact with antiquities formed the basis of fascinating and informative works “The Sword in the Golden Sheath”, “Sovereign Desert”.
The first publications of the author, dedicated to the exotic profession of an archaeologist, took place in 1946 in the journal "Youth". In 1957, the debut collection of poems “Departure” saw the light, which was approved by both the poetic fraternity and critics. At the same time, Valentin Berestov, whose poems became quite popular among the readership, published the first book for young children “About the Car”, after which “The Lark”, “Fifth Leg”, “Definition of Happiness” were presented to the court of young readers “First leaf fall”, “How to find the track”, “Smile”.
In family life, Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov was happily married to Tatyana Ivanovna Alexandrova , an artist, storyteller, and author of a book about the famous Kuzyu.
In the 1970s, the three-room apartment of the spouses was almost the only place in the capital where young artists, journalists, and poets gathered regularly, 2-3 times a week. Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov helped many of them at the beginning of the literary path.
Literary activity
As a publicist, Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov, whose stories are still relevant in their subjects, was fond of the work of other writers. In particular, he was attracted to the work of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. Valentin Dmitrievich wrote interesting articles about Alexander Blok, Sergey Yesenin, Osip Mandelstam. The readers ’genuine interest is caused by his memoirs about Alexei Tolstoy, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Anna Akhmatova, Korney Chukovsky, Boris Pasternak. He successfully proved himself in writing epigrams that were popular among listeners. Along the way, Valentin Berestov was engaged in translations and retelling of biblical traditions.
In the difficult 90s, when creativity ceased to be profitable, Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov began to earn money by writing songs. Together with Eduard Uspensky, he began to speak on the air, wrote poetry, memoirs. In the last years of his life, together with his wife, he composed and published children's fairy tales. The key thing in these years was the compilation of the “Selected” according to the “Explanatory Dictionary” by Dal V. I., which the author worked on together with his wife. The publication was released in 2001. Most of the time Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich devoted to filming on television and broadcasts on radio, wrote music for his own poems and even performed with musical groups.
The famous writer, a man with a wide soul and an open heart, died on April 15, 1998. Valentin Berestov was a writer, completely atypical, not like ordinary Soviet writers - this is a man with a capital letter, joyful and absolutely free. “A talented, intelligent, funny, lyrical poet,” as Naum Moiseevich Korzhavin called him .