Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Siberiak 1852-1912 - a Russian writer, playwright. He was born in the Visimo-Shaitansk factory in the Urals to a factory priest's family. The family lived quite modestly, but thanks to his father's efforts, the future writer received a good home education. Later, D.N. Mamin-Siberiak studied at the Spiritual School in Yekaterinburg and the seminary in Perm, but the path of a priest did not attract the young man at all, and in 1872 he transferred from Perm to Saint Petersburg at the Medical-Surgical Academy. His childhood passion for literature did not leave him, and in 1875 D.N. Mamin-Siberiak began working as a reporter for one of the St. Petersburg newspapers. It was then that his first stories were published. In 1877, the writer returned to his native land in the Urals. His first children's story "Emelya the Hunter" was published by D.N. Mamin-Siberiak in 1884. The story tells of the difficult fate of little Grishutka, who was left an orphan. He lives with Emelya the Hunter, who knows all the picturesque forests around their village. When the boy fell ill, he asked his grandfather to catch a fawn. For several days, Emelya tracked the deer and finally found their trail. But the hunter, captivated by the mother doe fiercely protecting her child, could not kill them. Emelya remembered how his mother shielded Grishutka from wolves with her body and felt pity for the deer. In 1885, the story "Vertel" was published. The main character, twelve-year-old Proushka, spends all his time in a cramped workshop at the grinding machine's wheel. The owner of the workshop treats the boy well, but in reality, he is indifferent to his fate. One day, a noble lady with her son appeared in the workshop. She shows interest in Proushka's fate, but even here there is no sincerity: Anna Ivanovna hopes that the vivid example of the little vertel will rid her son of nobleman’s pretensions. And Proushka feels this falseness. Even when seriously ill, he refuses to move to the warm shed of Anna Ivanovna and dies in the workshop. In this book, the child will become acquainted with the stories "Emelya the Hunter" and "Vertel".
