Anatoly Borisovich Marienhof or Mariengof (russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Мариенго́ф; 6 July (24 June O.S.) 1897 – 24 June 1962) 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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He was one of the leading figures of Imaginism. Today, he is remembered mostly for his memoirs depicting Russian literary life in the 1920s and his friendship with

Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin ( rus, Сергей Александрович Есенин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈsʲenʲɪn; ( 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one o ...

Biography

Anatoly Marienhof was born into a Livonian nobleman's family in

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

. Upon graduating from gymnasium in 1914, he was drafted and served during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on the Eastern Front. Marienhof's literary career started in 1918, when he participated in the Imaginists' manifesto "Deklaraciia", published in

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the ...

. The manifesto was also signed by Yesenin and other

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

poets. Together, they started a new movement in poetry known as Imaginism. Marienhof took part in all Imaginist actions and publications and published a dozen books of poetry under his own name between 1920 and 1928. He became a close friend of Yesenin, with whom he shared a flat during some months. Marienhof is the dedicatee of some of Yesenin's major works, including the major poem ''Sorokoust'', the drama ''Pugachov,'' and the tract on poetics ''Maria's Keys''. Marienhof gained further renown with his controversial fiction: "The Novel without Lies" (1926) and "The Cynics" (1928). The former presented his fictionalized (although still largely accurate) recollections of his friendship with Sergei Yesenin; the latter was a story of the life of young intellectuals during the revolution and the War communism. Both were met with sharp criticism in the Soviet press. "The Cynics" was published in Berlin (Petropolis), and would not appear in the Soviet Union until 1988. After the publication of his last novel, "Shaved Man", in 1930 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and parts of his historical novel "Ekaterina" (1936), Marienhof was reduced to writing for theatre and later for radio without any hope of being published again. Yesenin's works were edited in the USSR for a long period of time to omit the dedications to Marienhof. In his later years, after

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's death, Marienhof wrote mostly memoirs; they were published several decades after his death in 1962.

English translations

*''Cynics'', (Novel), Hyperion Press, 1973. *''A Novel Without Lies'', (Memoir), Glas, 2000.

Literature

Tomi Huttunen. Imazhinist Mariengof: Dandy. Montage. Cynics. Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie. 2007.

References

External links

English translations of 4 miniature poems, 1917-1919

English translations of 2 poems by Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky, 1921
* English translations of Aphorisms, etc. i
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literary magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Marienhof, Anatoly 1897 births 1962 deaths Writers from Nizhny Novgorod People from Nizhegorodsky Uyezd Russian untitled nobility Russian people of Jewish descent Russian male dramatists and playwrights Russian male poets Soviet novelists Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian poets Soviet dramatists and playwrights Russian male novelists Russian military personnel of World War I Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery