Ivan Bunin: Google doodle on Russian novelist, Nobel Prize winner’s 150th birthday

Happy Birthday Ivan Bunin!!!

Today Google celebrates the 150^th birthday of Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin with a beautiful doodle. Ivan Bunin was the first Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Widely acclaimed for his rare mastery of both prose and poetry, Ivan Bunin carried the tradition of classical Russian literature into the 20^th century, establishing his legacy as one of the nation’s most revered stylists of his time.

Ivan Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in the central Russian city of Voronezh. Having come from a long line of rural gentry with a distinguished ancestry including Polish roots, as well Tatar, Ivan Bunin was especially proud that poets Anna Bunina (1774–1829) and Vasily Zhukovsky (1783–1852) were among his ancestors.

In May 1887, Ivan Bunin published his first poem ‘Village Paupers’ in the Saint Petersburg literary magazine Rodina (Motherland). In 1891, his first short story ‘Country Sketch’ appeared in the Nikolay Mikhaylovsky-edited journal Russkoye Bogatstvo.

In 1895, Ivan Bunin visited the Russian capital for the first time. There he was to meet the Narodniks Nikolay Mikhaylovsky and Sergey Krivenko, Anton Chekhov (with whom he began a correspondence and became close friends), Alexander Ertel, and the poets Konstantin Balmont and Valery Bryusov.

In 1901, Ivan Bunin won the prestigious Academy of Sciences’ Pushkin Prize for his book of poetry titled “Listopad” (“Falling Leaves,” 1901). Around this time, he began to turn his focus towards prose, establishing himself as one of Russia’s most popular writers. Known for his understated and musical writing style, Bunin went on to craft vivid portraits of Russia through works like “Derévnya” (“The Village,” 1910), the autobiographical novel “Zhizn Arsenyeva” (“The Life of Arseniev,” 1930), his diaries “Okayánnye Dni” (“Cursed Days: A Diary of Revolution,” 1936), and the book of short stories “Tyomnye allei” (“Dark Avenues,” 1943).

Google today honors the legendary Russian poet, novelist and translator Ivan Bunin on his 150^th birthday.

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