Who are they - brothers and sisters of Chekhov, Kataev and other famous writers who worked under pseudonyms

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Not always talented relatives bear the same name. Even siblings can have completely different surnames. There are many cases in the writing world when readers were not even aware that two different authors grew up in the same family.

Evgeny Petrov and Valentin Kataev

Many people love both "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Lonely Sail Glows White", but they do not connect these two works. And there is a connection, although not direct, - they were written by the brothers, Evgeny Petrov (co-authored with Ilya Ilf) and Valentin Kataev. The real surname of both is Kataev, but Eugene decided to take a pseudonym in order to avoid confusion with his brother.

The age difference between the brothers was five years, but this did not prevent them from doing a lot together. So both of them were carried away by literature - and both became famous, at least in their homeland. By the way, later Valentin's son, Pavel, also became a writer. He penned several children's stories and plays for the puppet theater.

Their life has developed very differently. Valentin Petrovich was married three times, spied on the White Guards during the post-revolutionary events, was friends with Bunin and considered him his teacher. During the war he became a front-line correspondent; saw enough of everything that resulted in the brightest of his stories, "The Son of the Regiment", and in further many days of drinking. He founded the magazine "Youth", and he himself lived to be almost ninety years old.

Eugene also worked as a front-line correspondent and died in this post - the plane on which he was flying was knocked out by the Germans. Many noted his extraordinary tact, decency and humanity. He was very kind to his only wife, Valentina. Perhaps his tragic death was among the reasons that led to the hard drinking of Valentin Kataev.

Teffi and Mirra Lokhvitskaya

It would seem that there can be nothing in common between these two women. The comedian and coquette Teffi, the star of the Russian emigration, and the poetess who actually paved the way for women in the Silver Age of Russian poetry - Mirra: how different their roles and roles are! But they were sisters, and their names were Nadezhda and Maria. Maria (Mirra's real name) was the eldest.

Both girls wrote from their youth and then, in their youth, they agreed that first one Lokhvitskaya would be famous, and then another instead of her, so that, so to speak, not pushing on Olympus. But in the end, the younger sister decided that it was easier to take a pseudonym, and became just Teffi.

Mirra experienced incredible popularity and died young, from angina pectoris, and before that she was tormented by severe depression for a long time. Teffi has lived a long life. She was a nurse at the front during the First World War, went abroad after the revolution, there she made documents for herself with a different, much younger age, wrote stories and played novels. During World War II, she starved, just not to cooperate with collaborationist publications (and there were no others after the occupation in Paris). She died at eighty years old.

Samuil Marshak and his brother and sister "Ilyins"

Children who read magazines like Koster and Siskin knew well the work of not only the famous children's poet Samuil Marshak, but also his sister Elena Ilyina (real name - Leia Marshak), who was a regular author of several children's magazines. Many also loved books that popularized science and technical progress for a young reader, which had the signature “M. Ilyin” - that was the brother of Samuil Yakovlevich Ilya Marshak, in fact, the founder of his genre. Leia and Ilya took the same pseudonym, because they did not see competition in each other - but the threat to remain in the shadow of the most famous of the Marshaks was real.

I must say that one of the most famous children's poets in the USSR twice suffered parental misfortune. As a result of an accident, his one-year-old daughter Nata died of burns. Both sons lived to grow up, but one died very young from tuberculosis.

Anton Chekhov and his brothers

Anton Pavlovich was not the only writer in the Chekhov family, although he was undoubtedly the most talented. Alexander and Mikhail Chekhov also wrote. Moreover, initially all three brothers used pseudonyms, and each had several.

So, the stories of Anton Pavlovich could be signed "Chekhonte", "My brother's brother", "A man without a spleen", Alexander Pavlovich - "Agafopod Edinitsin", "Aloe", "A. Gray ", Mikhail Pavlovich -" M. B-sky "," Maxim Kholiava "," Captain Cook ". According to some reports, each of the three brothers suffered from periods of depression and each died after a debilitating illness. Anton Pavlovich suffered from tuberculosis, Alexander Pavlovich - throat cancer, and the exact diagnosis of Mikhail Pavlovich is unknown - he died in exile.

I must say, both their brothers-sisters and their descendants turned out to be very talented: among the Chekhovs there were actors and artists. Mikhail Chekhov's wife became a movie star in the Third Reich and there are still rumors that she worked for Soviet intelligence.

The writers took pseudonyms not only because of famous relatives. 15 famous writers whose real names few people remember, looked back at completely different circumstances.