Elizaveta Nikolayevna Akhmatova writing as Leila (; 2 December 1820 – 12 April 1904) was a Russian writer, publisher and translator who published translations of English and French writers into Russian.

Life

Akhmatova was born in

Nachalovo Nachalovo () is a rural locality (a selo) and the administrative center of Privolzhsky District of Astrakhan Oblast, Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countri ...

Astrakhan Governorate Astrakhan Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, and the Russian SFSR, which existed from 1717 to 1929. It was created from separating the southwestern part of Kazan Go ...

in 1820 where she showed an early aptitude for languages. She would read books written in French and translate them as she read aloud to her mother in Russian. She received a good education despite her father dying when she was five. As a writer she was "adopted" by the Polish-Russian journalist

Osip Senkovsky Osip Ivanovich Senkovsky (; – ), born Józef-Julian Sękowski, was a Polish-Russian orientalist, journalist and entertainer. Life Senkovsky was born on his mother's estate in Antagotony, located some 30 miles away from Vilna (Vilnius in moder ...

who replied favourably to an unpublished translation that she sent him in 1842. Akhmatova saw him as a father figure who guided her writing career. She moved to St Petersburg in 1848 although she had visited there three years earlier. She translated and wrote for Senkovsky's journal '' Library for Reading''. She wrote for other editors including Senkovsky's successor Albert Starchevsky. In 1856 she created her own publication which was titled ''Collected Foreign Novels, Novellas and Stories Translated into Russian''. This magazine would flourish for twenty years although one source says thirty. There were 344 different issues and it included the work of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonsto ...

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

and

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...

. She also created publications for younger readers but these had shorter lives. She took some criticism that was intended for Senkovsky. Some writers objected to how their work had been edited and Akhmatova's own stories were frequently changed or condensed before publication. Akhmatova's stories are noted for having strong female leads who direct male characters through the narrative. Akhmatova died in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhmatova, Elizaveta 1820 births 1904 deaths People from Astrakhan Oblast People from Astrakhan Governorate 19th-century women writers from the Russian Empire Publishers (people) from the Russian Empire 19th-century translators from the Russian Empire