Aleksandr Stepanovich Grinevsky (; – 8 July 1932), better known by his pen name Alexander Green or Grin (, ), was a Russian writer, notable for his romanticism novels and short stories, mostly set in an unnamed fantasy land with a European or Latin American flavor (Grin's fans often refer to this land as Grinlandia). Most of his writings deal with the sea, adventures, and love.[The Soviet Union, A Biographical Dictionary, Macmillan, NY, 1990.]
Biography
Alexander Grin was born Aleksandr Stepanovich Grinevsky () in Slobodskoy, Vyatka Governorate (now in
Kirov Oblast) in 1880, the son of the
Polish people Stefan Hryniewski (pronounced in Russian as
Stefan Grinevsky). Stefan was sent away to Tula as punishment after participating in the
January Uprising of 1863, and of a
Russians nurse, Anna Lyapkova.
Aleksandr, after graduating from a school in Vyatka (in 1896), went to
Odessa and lived the life of a vagabond.
He worked as a sailor, gold miner, and construction worker, but often found himself without a job and sustained himself by begging and with money sent to him by his father.
After joining the Russian army, he became a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, was arrested, and spent time in jail for "revolutionary propaganda". He published his first short story in a newspaper in 1906. In the same year he was arrested in Saint Petersburg and sentenced to four years of exile in a remote area of Tobolsk Governorate. However, very soon after arriving in Tobolsk, Grin escaped and returned to Petersburg to live illegally. He was again arrested in 1910 and sent to live in Arkhangelsk Governorate. In a small village called Kegostrov,
In 1912 he returned to Saint Petersburg and divorced his wife. At that time, Grin published mostly short stories; most of his larger works were written after the 1917 October Revolution and enjoyed significant popularity in the first half of the 1920s. In 1921 he married .
In his book Sculpting in Time, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky describes how Grin, when dying of hunger, "went off into the mountains with a home-made bow-and-arrow to shoot some sort of game". He offers Grin as an example of a poet in the deepest sense: one with "an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality... a philosophy to guide a man throughout his life".[Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967) p. 21.]
Works
Most of Alexander Grin's writings bear no direct relation to the reality of
Russian Empire and
Soviet Union Russia that he lived in. The setting of most of his novels and short stories is an unnamed land by the sea, apparently far from Europe but with all characters being Western European in name and appearance. Even his literary pseudonym (Grin) is a de-Russified form of his real last name (Grinevsky).
Described by some critics as "adolescent fiction",
[ Crossover Fiction: Global and Historical Perspectives, Sandra L. Beckett] Grin's works have many things in common with the reality of the early 20th century (such as automobiles and banks). Populated by sea captains, sailors, scientists, travelers, criminals, extravagant aristocrats, childlike girls, elegant villains, and strong-spirited heroes who always stay true to their dreams, Grin's world is often referred to as
Grinlandia by fans. Some of his novels contain an element of magic – not as an established part of his world, but always as a miracle that changes the lives of those who encounter it.
Bibliography
The most notable of his novels include:
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Scarlet Sails ( Алые паруса, 1923), a simple but powerful love story, perhaps the most famous of Grin's works. It was made into a 1961 film, when during the Khrushchev Thaw, Grin's works enjoyed a revival of popularity.
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The Shining World ( Блистающий мир, 1923)
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The Golden Chain ( Золотая цепь, 1925)
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She Who Runs on the Waves ( Бегущая по волнам, 1928)
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Jessie and Morgiana (1929, Джесси и Моргиана). It was made into a Czechoslovak film Morgiana in 1972.
[ Morgiana at IMDb.]
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The Road to Nowhere ( Дорога никуда, 1930)
Books
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Selected Short Stories. Translated by Nicholas Luker. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Ardis Publishers, 1987.
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Fandango and Other Stories. Translated by Bryan Karetnyk. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020 (The Russian Library).
Film adaptations
Notes
External links
