Ivan Alekseevich Bunin - a famous Russian writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of the literature of the Silver Age. For his works and best poems, Bunin was awarded the Pushkin and Nobel Prizes in the field of literature.
Biography: childhood and youth
Ivan Bunin was born in the city of Voronezh on October 10, 1870. His family belonged to a noble noble family (one of the writer's ancestors is Vasily Zhukovsky, poet and mentor of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin himself). However, by the time of the birth of Ivan, the Bunin clan became impoverished and lost its former greatness. The father of the future writer, Alexei Nikolaevich, was a simple official. A family consisting of a mother, father, Ivan himself, as well as his two older brothers, rented an apartment in house No. 3 on Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street.
The family loved and appreciated literature, parents and brothers often read aloud the works of Pushkin and his best poems. Bunin at home with the help of a tutor studied Latin and read a lot. At this point, the family did not live in Voronezh, but in a family estate located in the Oryol province.
In 1881, the future writer entered the Yelets men's gymnasium, but did not finish his graduation - in 1886 he came home for the winter holidays and decided not to return, for which he was expelled. Bunin continued his studies at home, his brother became his teacher.
At the age of 16-17, Ivan began to seriously try himself in literature, wrote novels and poems and sent them for publication in various magazines. One of the best poems of Bunin of that period is considered to be "Village beggar."
Creation
The first collection of the poet was published in 1891, after which Bunin quickly became known in the literary environment. He met and talked with critics, publicists and other writers, and poets, worked in the editorial office of the journal Oryol Vestnik, and attended a literary circle.
Six years after the first publication, the book "To the End of the World" was published. At this time, the writer began to translate poems by foreign poets - Byron, Mickiewicz, Petrarch and others.
According to critics, the best poems of Bunin were written in 1898-1903. The poet received the Pushkin and Nobel Prizes precisely for the collections “Under the Open Sky” and “Listopad” published in 1898 and 1900. But the poems included in them were not popular with readers, as poems dedicated to nature and its landscapes were considered old-fashioned.
In the last decades of his life, Bunin wrote mostly prose. So, 1910-1915, when the short stories “Easy Breath”, “Mr. from San Francisco” and “Grammar of Love” were published, are considered the peak of his literary career.
Critic reviews
Well-known literary scholars note that the best poems of Bunin are unusually picturesque, the paintings of Nesterov could become illustrations for them. The poet talentedly selected words for his works that accurately reflected the meaning that he wanted to convey.
A considerable part of the writer's work is devoted to the topic of feelings and love. One of the best is considered the story “The Lord from San Francisco”, striking the accuracy and expressiveness of the language of the story.
Bunin's style was in many ways different from the work of other writers of that time, the poet himself considered himself free from any literary trends. Critics believe that Bunin’s works do not have a typical clear system, his work is ambiguous and cannot be accurately characterized by any one term.