Nadezhda Ivanovna Merder (russian: Надежда Ивановна Мердер, Svechina, Свечина, born 1839, — died 13 March 1906) was a
Russian writer
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were composed. By the Ag ...
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 ...
, better known under her pen name N. Severin (Н. Северин).
Born to a retired military man belonging to an old Russian rural gentry family, she debuted in ''
Otechestvennye Zapiski
''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lite ...
'' with her 1877 short novel ''Out of Order'' (Не в порядке вещей) to be followed by numerous (in all, more than one hundred) novels, plays and novellas, which appeared originally in the magazines ''
Delo
''Delo'' (russian: Дело) is a business oriented online media in Ukraine, belonging to ekonomika+ media holding.
''Delo'' was the first daily in Ukraine, publishing its real print circulation (13.000 - 15.000) and trying to introduce Western e ...
Vestnik Evropy
''Vestnik Evropy'' (russian: Вестник Европы) (''Herald of Europe'' or ''Messenger of Europe'') was the major liberal magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia. It was published from 1866 to 1918.
The magazine (named for an earlier ...
'', ''
Istorichesky Vestnik
''Istorichesky Vestnik'' (russian: Историческій Вѣстникъ, Исторический вестник, History Herald) was a Russian monthly historical and literary magazine published in Saint Petersburg in 1880-1917.Niva''. Of the several plays she wrote for theatre, the best known was ''Happiness in Marriage'' (Супружеское счастье, 1884).
Forgotten during the Soviet times, N. Severin's legacy was revived in 1990s after her Selected Works came out in 1997 via the Terra Publishers.N. Severin Biography at the
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
The ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary'' (Russian: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, abbr. ЭСБЕ, tr. ; 35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume ...