Elin Pelin ( ) (8 July 1877 – 3 December 1949), born Dimitar Ivanov Stoyanov () was a Bulgarian writer.
Stoyan Christowe called him "Bulgaria's leading writer".
Biography
He was born in the village of
Bailovo, in
Sofia District.
He completed his primary education, but not his secondary education.
Studying to become a teacher, he taught for a year in 1895 in his native village.
He went to Sofia some time after that, and from 1898 to 1900 returned to live in Bailovo.
He was first published in 1901, and the respect it earned him in literary circles encouraged him to go to Sofia in 1903, where he worked as a librarian at the
Sofia University
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public university, public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria.
Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constr ...
library and national library of Bulgaria from 1904. From 1922 he was a curator of the
Ivan Vazov museum.
His name was derived from a Bulgarian folksong.
He spent 1904–05 in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, and made trips to Italy and Russia in 1906 and 1913.
Most of his life was spent in Sofia.
Between 1910 and 1916, he was the director of special collections at the National Library and also served as editor of numerous magazines, including the children's publication ''Veselushka''. Additionally, he served as a war correspondent during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
In 1911, one of his most famous Bulgarian literary works appeared, ''The Gerak Family'' (Bulgarian: ''Geratsite''). It is one of the best-known pieces of Bulgarian literature and critically deals with the Bulgarian traditional village family experiencing the transition from the simplicity of rurality to the modernization of Bulgarian society, a social world in which old country traditional practices founded on family love and dedication to the country land start to disappear. His second great work in the
Bulgarian literary canon, ''Earth'' (Bulgarian: ''Zemya''), was published in 1922. In this book, Pelin created a memorable gallery of characters which may be identified with the Bulgarian national character and Balkan consciousness.
Pelin's literary works—poems, short stories and novels—recreated the peasantry and countryside atmosphere of the post-liberation
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
. His predilection for short stories led him to write many, of which the humorous ''Pizho and Penda'' is perhaps the best known. A genuine country
realism, with descriptions full of light and color, classify his works. Considered one of the masters of Bulgarian prose, he was also one of the initiators of Bulgarian children's literature. His children's tales of ''
Yan Bibiyan
Yan Bibiyan () is the first Bulgarian fantasy novel for children by the Bulgarian writer Elin Pelin and the name of its protagonist. The novel is described as " the most celebrated children’s fantasy novel". Today there is almost nobody in Bulga ...
'' and his voyages to the moon still delight today.
Pelin published the first book of fairytales in verse in Bulgarian; many of his works were written for children. In 1940, he was named president of the Union of Bulgarian Writers.
After the
War
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
, he managed to escape being blacklisted as a forbidden author by the
Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
government of the
People's Republic of Bulgaria
The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; , NRB; ) was the official name of Bulgaria when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; ) together with its coalition partner, the Bulgarian Agraria ...
. The regime chose to consider his works as those of a realistic, critical author, а precursor of
Socialist Realism who, although not having correctly seized the true nature of the
Bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
state, knew how to tell about the life of the working class and individual revolt of exploited peasants.
''Earth'' and ''The Gerak Family'', amongst other works, have been filmed several times (1930 and 1957, and 1958, respectively).
In 1949, he was presented with the gold medal for science and art.
Georgi Karaslavov described him as second only to
Botev in Bulgarian literature.
The Bulgarian town of
Elin Pelin was named after him, as is
Elin Pelin Point on
Smith Island,
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...
.
References
External links
Virtual Library of Bulgarian Literature Slovoto- library of online Bulgarian literature in Bulgarian and a number of other languages.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelin, Elin
1877 births
1949 deaths
Bulgarian children's writers
People from Sofia Province
Burials at Central Sofia Cemetery
Bulgarian male short story writers
Bulgarian speculative fiction writers
Bulgarian male writers
Bulgarian librarians
20th-century Bulgarian short story writers
20th-century Bulgarian writers