Author Bio| Maxim Gorky | | Gorky was born Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov, but renamed himself "Gorky", which means "bitter." He was orphaned young and raised by grandparents. At the age of 9 he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but ran away to become a cabin boy on a steamboat on the Volga, where he learned to read--almost his only schooling. His first story was published in 1892, and thereafter he struggled to support himself as a writer. He became friends with Chekhov, who got him involved with the Moscow Art Players, for whom he wrote plays. He was married in 1896, and in the early 1900s became a revolutionary Marxist, joining the Bolshevik party in 1905. When the 1905 Revolution failed, he was forced into exile, first traveling to the U.S., then returning to Europe to live on the island of Capri. In 1913 he returned to Russia but left again after the 1918 revolution, when his works began to be censored. He lived in Sorrento, not returning until 1931--hoping at that point that his works would improve the quality of life for his fellow Soviet citizens. Gorky was also a significant influence on and inspiration for many Eastern-bloc writers, and is considered the founder of socialist realism. He died under suspicious circumstances in 1936, possibly murdered by the Communist Party. He was, however, given an elaborate state funeral. |
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