Konstantin Mikhailovich Fofanov ( rus, Константи́н Миха́йлович Фо́фанов, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ˈfofənəf, a=Konstantin Mihaylovich Fofanov.ru.vorb.oga; May 30, 1862 – May 30, 1911) was a Russian poet.

Biography

Konstantin was born into a family of St. Petersburg merchants. His father had been born a peasant, but had risen to the merchant class through the selling of firewood. Konstantin was one of ten children. At the age of six he began attending a primary school. He later attended the cheap private Aimee and Kestner pensions, as well as the St. Petersburg city school, but left before completing the second form after his father went bankrupt and became a mystic. As a result, Konstantin didn't receive a formal education. He made up for his lack of education by the constant reading of magazines and books, sometimes messy, but extremely diverse. His reading was clearly on an ad hoc basis, but he was fascinated by books, becoming addicted to poetry at the age of thirteen, and beginning to write his own verses.Fofanov at the Russian Writers dictionary
// "Русские писатели". Биобиблиографический словарь. Том 2. М--Я. Под редакцией П. А. Николаева. М., "Просвещение", 1990 He made his debut in print in 1881. He published poems in the illustrated weeklies, and in the newspaper '' New Times'', run by

Aleksey Suvorin Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin (; , Korshevo, Voronezh Governorate – , Tsarskoye Selo) was a Russian newspaper and book publisher and journalist whose publishing empire wielded considerable influence during the last decades of the Russian Emp ...

. After the success of his first collection ''Poems'' (1887), Suvorin issued a second book of poetry by Fofanov with the same title in 1889. After this Fofanov published ''Shadows and Mystery'' (1892), a novella in verse ''The Baron Clasco'' (1892) and ''Poems'' (in five parts, 1896). In general, the period from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s in the history of Russian poetry, is often called "Fofanovism" because the poetry of Fofanov had the support of popular sentiment, found a wide response from readers and provoked much imitation. His talent was praised by fellow poets

Yakov Polonsky Yakov Petrovich Polonsky (; ) was a leading Pushkinist poet who wrote poems faithful to the traditions of Russian Romantic poetry during the heyday of realistic prose. Of noble birth, Polonsky attended the Moscow University, where he befriended ...

and

Apollon Maykov Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (, , Moscow – , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian poet, best known for his lyric verse showcasing images of Russian villages, nature, and history. His love for ancient Greece and Rome, which he studied for much of his ...

and writers such as

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

and

Nikolai Leskov Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (; – ) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist, who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held ...

. Fofanov is considered to be a precursor of the

Symbolists Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

Wolfgang Kasack Wolfgang Kasack (, ''Volfgang Germanovich Kazak''; Potsdam, 20 January 1927 – Much, 10 January 2003) was a German Slavic studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic fiel ...

/ Казак В. Лексикон русской литературы XX века = Lexikon der russischen Literatur ab 1917 / �ер. с нем. — М. : РИК «Культура», 1996. . С. 440. Fofanov was an alcoholic, and in the early 1890s suffered from a severe mental illness. The last ten years of his life were spent in poverty and drunkenness. He continued to write, but published only a collection of poems ''Illusions'' (1900), a poem in octaves ''Uncommon Romance'' and the poem ''After Calvary'' (1910).

References

External links

The works by Konstantin Fofanov
at Lib.ru {{DEFAULTSORT:Fofanov, Konstantin 1862 births 1911 deaths Writers from Saint Petersburg Male poets from the Russian Empire Male writers from the Russian Empire