Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Anton Antonovich Delvig ( – ) was a Russian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

descent.

Early life

Anton Delvig was born on . He was of

descent. He studied at the

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum The Imperial Lyceum () in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder Tsar Alexander I, was an educational institution which was founded in 1811 with the object of educating yo ...

together with

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

and

Wilhelm Küchelbecker Wilhelm Ludwig von Küchelbecker (; in St. Petersburg – in Tobolsk) was a Russian Romantic poet and Decembrist revolutionary of German descent. Life Born into a Baltic German noble family, he spent his childhood in what is now Estonia a ...

, with whom he became close friends. Küchelbecker dedicated a poem ('O, Delvig') to him; this poem was later set to music by

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

in the ninth movement of his fourteenth symphony. As a teenager, Delvig began writing poetry. He became connected with a literary group established by

Alexey Olenin Alexey Nikolayevich Olenin (Aleksey Nikolaevich Olenin, ; in Moscow – in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian Archaeology, archaeologist, most notable for being a director of the National Library of Russia, Imperial Public Library between 1811 a ...

and the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Career

Delvig is also mentioned in Pushkin's famous novel in verse ''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...

'', being compared to the young poet Lensky. Delvig commissioned a portrait of Pushkin from

Orest Kiprensky Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (; – ) was a leading Russian portraitist in the Age of Romanticism. His most familiar work is probably his portrait of Alexander Pushkin (1827), which prompted the poet to remark that "the mirror flatters me." Bi ...

, which Pushkin bought from Delvig's widow after his friend's death.Антон Дельвиг
// Автор: Н. В. Банников In 1820, Delvig met

Yevgeny Baratynsky Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky ( rus, Евге́ний Абра́мович Бараты́нский, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈbraməvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈtɨnskʲɪj, a=Yevgyeniy Abramovich Baratynskiy.ru.vorb.oga; 11 July 1844) was lauded by Alexande ...

and introduced him to the literary press. In his poetry, Delvig upheld the waning traditions of Russian

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

. He became interested in Russian

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

and wrote numerous imitations of folk songs. Some of these were put to music by the composers

Alexander Alyabyev Alexander Aleksandrovich Alyabyev (; ), also rendered as Alabiev or Alabieff, was a Russian composer known as one of the fathers of the Russian art song. He wrote seven operas, twenty musical comedies, a symphony, three string quartets, more th ...

and

Mikhail Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, links=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, mʲɪxɐˈil ɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognit ...

. As a journalist, Delvig edited the periodical ''

Northern Flowers ''Northern Flowers'' () was a Russian-language literary almanac published yearly in Saint Petersburg from 1825 to 1832. The full title in Russian was ''Северные цветы, собранные бароном Дельвигом'' (Norther ...

'' (1825–1831), in which Pushkin was a regular contributor. In 1830–1831, he co-edited with Pushkin the ''

Literaturnaya Gazeta ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (, ''Literary Gazette'') is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and the Soviet Union. It was published for two periods in the 19th century, and was revived in 1929. Overview The current newspa ...

'', which was banned by the Tsarist government after information laid by Thaddeus Bulgarin.

Personal life

In 1825, Delvig married Sofya Saltykova; they had one daughter. He died on .

Notes

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Delvig, Anton 1798 births 1831 deaths Writers from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire Barons of the Russian Empire Male poets from the Russian Empire Journalists from the Russian Empire Russian male journalists Romantic poets 19th-century writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century poets from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni Deaths from typhus Burials at Tikhvin Cemetery