Alexander Volkov (writer)

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For other people named Alexander Volkov, see Alexander Volkov (disambiguation).
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Melentyevich and the family name is Volkov.
Alexander Volkov
Russian writer Alexander Melentyevich Volkov, 1914
Russian writer Alexander Melentyevich Volkov, 1914
BornAlexander Melentyevich Volkov
(1891-06-14)14 June 1891
Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk Oblast, Russian Empire
Died3 July 1977(1977-07-03) (aged 86)
Moscow, Soviet Union

Alexander Melentyevich Volkov (Russian: Александр Мелентьевич Волков [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr mʲɪˈlʲenʲtʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈvolkəf]; 14 June 1891 – 3 July 1977) was a Soviet novelist, playwright, university lecturer. He was an author of novels, short stories, plays and poems for children, mostly remembered for the Magic Land series of books, based on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Biography

Volkov was born in

Law of God
.

He began to work as a teacher in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Starting in 1910, he worked as a mathematics teacher in the village of Kolyvan. In the 1920s he moved to

Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute
.

In 1929 he moved to Moscow, where he worked as the

Moscow University
in seven months.

Starting in 1931 he worked as teacher, and later as Docent of the Department of Higher Mathematics of the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold.

Writings

Magic Land series

The first of these books,

Oz books
.

The context and situations found in the Volkov version are notably different from the original Baum version in their political tones. The situations, while still maintaining a childlike clarity of good versus evil, often involve the characters encountering very mature political and ethical decisions. The heroes are repeatedly called upon to defend Magic Land against invasions or topple feudalistic or aristocratic governments to free the populace. Both themes are often found in Soviet sci-fi and adventure literature (see the

Hard to be a God and Inhabited Island
).

Volkov had faith in the omnipotence of the man-made technique, so the wizardry of his heroes was usually won with the help of various technical inventions (a cannon designed by Charly Black, a mechanical drill, and Tilly-Willy; a super-robot).

Volkov's Magic Land series was translated into many languages and was popular with children all over the

Eastern bloc. Volkov's version of Oz seems to be better known than Baum's in some countries, for example in China, in Germany (especially former East Germany), and also in Arab countries such as Syria
. In Germany, two authors have written their own set of sequels to Volkov's books.

The books in the series have been translated into English by Peter L. Blystone, and were published by Red Branch Press in three volumes (two books per volume) in 1991, 1993, and 2007. A revised edition of the first two-book volume was published in 2010.[5]

Bibliography

Magic Land books

Other books

  • Wonderful balloon (The first aeronaut) (1940)
  • The Two Brothers (1950, rewritten in 1961)
  • The Architects (1954)
  • Astern trace (1960)
  • The Wandering (1963) (about childhood and youth of Giordano Bruno)
  • Prisoner of Zargrad (1969)
  • Land and Sky (1972)

References

  1. ^ Drew, Bernard A. (2010). Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors' Fictional Characters, p. 197. McFarland & Company, Inc.
  2. ^ Haber, Erika (2017). Oz Behind the Iron Curtain. University Press of Mississippi. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  3. ^ We read together (Читаем вместе) Archived 2020-01-25 at the Wayback Machine How the Emerald City was created.(Как создавался Изумрудный город)
  4. ISBN 978-1-47210-988-0
    . Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  5. ISBN 978-0-557-44825-8
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