Boris Shergin is a folklorist and storyteller who needs no introduction. His tales are widely known, including thanks to the animated films "The Magic Ring" (1979), brilliantly voiced by Yevgeny Leonov, and "Shish" (2006) featuring the equally talented voice of Nina Usatova. This collection is, in a sense, a first edition: it features engravings by Nikita Favorovsky (1915-1941) which have not been published anywhere before. In addition to Nikita Favorovsky's engravings, it includes two engravings by his father Vladimir Favorovsky, a friend and admirer of Boris Shergin's talent.
The texts of the tales have been rechecked against the first publications and manuscripts, with the traces of "smoothing" editing removed. The tale "The Magic Ring" is presented in a little-known author’s version "Vanka Dobroy".
At the end of the book, there is an article about Nikita Favorovsky's engravings, as well as family photographs of the Favorovskys. In the appendix - an ex-libris by Nikita Favorovsky - "cat from overseas".
Boris Viktorovich Shergin (1893 - 1973) was a writer, folklorist, publicist, and artist known for his stories about the lives of Pomors. He was born in Arkhangelsk to a family of hereditary shipbuilders and sailors. He attended the Stroganov School of Art in Moscow and led an art crafts workshop in Arkhangelsk for several years. In 1915, he began to publish records of folk tales, songs, and epics. From 1921 to 1933, he worked at the Institute of Children’s Reading in Moscow. His first collection of folk poetry retold by Shergin "By the City of Arkhangelsk, by the Shipyard" was published in 1924, and his first collection of stories "Shish Moskovsky" was published in 1930.
Vladimir Andreyevich Favorovsky (1886 - 1964) was a People's Artist of the USSR, a member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, an art historian, and a theorist of art. He was a leading master of Russian engraving and book arts. In his childhood, he studied at K.F. Yuon’s school-studio (1903-1905), attending evening sculpture classes at Stroganov School. From 1906 to 1907, he studied at the private academy of Sh. Holloshi in Munich and attended lectures in art history at the University of Munich. Upon returning to his homeland, he entered Moscow University. Vladimir Favorovsky's legacy is immense: magnificent illustrations for Russian and world classics, theoretical works, a series of lectures on composition theory, the book "Notes of an Engraver", and numerous articles.
Nikita Vladimirovich Favorovsky (1915 - 1941) was the son of Vladimir Favorovsky. From an early age, he was passionate about drawing and mastered the art of graphics by the age of 16. In 1931, Nikita Favorovsky's work was presented at an art exhibition in Johannesburg. He studied at the Moscow Polytechnic Institute. In addition to graphics, he engaged in wooden sculpture and monumental painting. He worked in the workshop of Lev Bruni. He illustrated Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter" and the medieval Armenian epic "David of Sasun". Together with his father, he painted the curtain of the Red Army Theater. He was killed in 1941 on the front lines.
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