Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich: biography and the creative path

Valentin Berestov is a Russian poet, an outstanding publicist, an interpreter, a writer, whose good poems have grown more than one generation of kids.

Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich: biography

A resident of the city of Meshchovsk (Kaluga region), Valentin was born on April 1, 1928. Raised by loving parents, kind grandfathers and grandmothers, the boy learned to read very early.

And with the first letters Valentine introduced a blind great-grandmother. Receiving a subscription newspaper "Izvestia", she asked the boy to describe in words, placed on the pages of the publication of the cartoon. One of them depicted, towering in the midst of a raging sea, a mountain cliff with 4 huge letters. Great-grandmother asked: "Are the three letters the same and located together? Not otherwise than the USSR! "This was the first word that the future poet managed to read independently.

Life in the evacuation

When the boy was 13 years old, his family from Meshchovsk was evacuated to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. There Valentin was lucky to get acquainted with Korney Chukovsky, Anna Akhmatova and make friends with Moore - the son of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. Literary criticism Valentin and his two friends studied with Korney Chukovsky's daughter - Lydia, and Nadezhda Mandelshtam taught English children .

Kornei Chukovsky, who subsequently played a significant role in the fate of Berestov, treated the young author's creative career with great care and sincere interest. In the opinion of an outstanding writer, Valentin - a frail 14-year-old teenager - was endowed with great talent, a refined sense of style, persistent efficiency and a high inborn culture.

Valentin Berestov: poems and stories

In 1944 the Berestovs changed their place of residence to the Moscow region. After the successful graduation from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and post-graduate studies at the Institute of Ethnography, Valentin took part in numerous archaeological excavations. Contact with antiquities formed the basis for fascinating and cognitive works "The Sword in the Golden Scabbard", "The Empress Desert".

The author's first publications on the exotic profession of the archaeologist took place in 1946 in the journal Yunost. In 1957, the light saw the debut collection of poems "Departure," which received the approval of both the poetic brotherhood and critics. At the same time, Valentin Berestov, whose poems became quite popular among the readership, published the first book for the younger generation "About the machine", after which the "Lark", "Fifth leg", "Definition of Happiness", " "The first leaf fall," "How to find the path," "Smile."

In his family life Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich was happily married to Alexandrova Tatiana Ivanovna - artist, storyteller and author of the book about the famous housekeeper Kuzyu.

In the 1970s, the three-room apartment of the couple was almost the only place in the capital, where young artists, journalists, poets regularly gathered, 2-3 times a week. Many of them Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich helped at the beginning of the literary path.

Literary Activity

Being a publicist, Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich, whose stories are still relevant today, was fond of the work of other writers. In particular he was attracted to the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Valentin Dmitrievich wrote interesting articles about Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin, Osip Mandelshtam. His readers' sincere interest is evoked by his memoirs about Aleksey Tolstoy, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Anna Akhmatova, Kornee Chukovsky, Boris Pasternak. Successfully proved himself in writing epigrams, which were popular among listeners. Along the way Valentin Berestov was engaged in translations and retelling of biblical traditions.

In the difficult 90-ies, when creativity ceased to be profitable, Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich began to earn by writing songs. Together with Eduard Uspensky began to speak in radio air, wrote poetry, memoirs. In the last years of his life, together with his wife, he composed and published children's tales. The key thing in these years was the compilation of "Favorites" for "Explanatory Dictionary" by Dal VI, to whom the author was engaged in a pair with his wife. The publication was published in 2001. Most of the time, Berestov Valentin Dmitrievich spent filming on television and radio broadcasts, wrote music for his own poems and even performed with musical groups.

There was no famous writer, a man with a broad heart and an open heart, on April 15, 1998. Valentin Berestov was a writer, completely atypical, unlike ordinary Soviet writers - it's a Man with a capital letter, joyful and completely free. "Talented, clever, cheerful, lyric poet," as Naum Moiseevich Korzhavin called him .