Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya - Biography

Yelizaveta Yakovlevna Tarakhovskaya (Елизаве́та Я́ковлевна Тарахо́вская; 1891 — 1968) was a Russian poet, playwright, translator, and author of children's books.

Biography

Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya (born Parnokh) was born in the city of Taganrog on July 26, 1891 in a pharmacist's family. She is sister to poetess Sophia Parnok and twin sister to founder of Soviet Russian jazz Valentin Parnakh. She graduated from the Taganrog Girls Gymnasium, later studied in Bestuzhev courses in Saint Petersburg and started to write poems in her childhood.

In 1925, her first books were published: On How Chocolate Came to MosSelProm and Tit Will Fly. Since then, she wrote many children's books, including Metropolitan (1932), The Moon and the Lazy Fellow (1933), The Seagull (1965, dedicated to Valentina Tereshkova, Soviet Russian cosmonaut, the first woman to go into space). She is the author of poems for grown-ups: The Violin Clef (1958), The Bird (1965). The verses of Tarakhovskaya are lyrical, thoughtful, and almost always full of humor, with most of them being the poetry of ordinary and everyday things around.

Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya translated into Russian many poems for children written by various Soviet and foreign authors: verses of Polish poet Julian Tuwim, Uzbek poet Kuddus Muhammadi (Muhammadiev), Azerbaijani poetess Mirvari Dilbazi, Georgian poetess Mariki Baratashvili, Lithuanian poet Edward Mejelaitis, Bulgarian poet Assen Bossev and many more.

Today Tarakhovskaya is probably most known for her play By the Pike's Wish, which was staged by Sergey Obraztsov in the Moscow State Academic Puppet Show named after Serguei Obraztsov in November 1936 and has remained in the theater's repertoire ever since. The play By the Pike's Wish (Po shchuchuyemu veleniyu) is considered by theater experts as the greatest puppet show of the 20th century, making quintessence of Meyerhold's methods. It was also released as a motion picture in 1938 (directed by Aleksandr Rou).

Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya died in Moscow on November 11, 1968 and was buried on Novodevichy Cemetery near her twin-brother Valentin

Works (alphabetical list)

• 12 без пяти / М.: Гиз, 1930.
• Бей в барабан! / М.: Мол. гвардия, 1932.
• Бей в барабан! / М.: Гиз, 1930.
• Бей в барабан! / Изд. 3-е. М.: Мол. гвардия, 1930.
• Воздушный парад / М.; Л.: Детиздат, 1937.
• Где овечка без хвоста? / М.; Л.: Гиз, 1930.
• Дружба /Ташкент: Госиздат Уз. ССР, 1942.
• Железная дорога / М.: Г. Ф. Мириманов, 1928.
• Калитка в сад / М.; Л.: Детгиз, 1949.
• Колокол в море / М.: Гиз, 1930.
• Костя, клоп и микроскоп / Л.: Радуга, 1929.
• Метро / М.: Детгиз, 1951.
• Метро. Изд. 3-е. М.; Л.: Детиздат, 1938.
• Метрополитен / М.: Детгиз, 1935.
• Метрополитен / Изд. 2-е. М.: Детиздат, 1936.
• Метрополитен / М.: Мол. гвардия, 1932.
• Новый дом / Изд. 2-е. М.; Л.: Мол. гвардия, 1931.
• Новый дом / 1928.
• Новый дом / М.; Л.: Гиз, 1930.
• О том, как приехал шоколад в Моссельпром /Рязань: Изд. "Друзья детей", 1925.
• Огород / 1928.
• Радиобригада / М.: Гиз, 1930.
• Радиобригада / Изд. 2-е. М.; Л.: Мол. гвардия, 1931.
• Сказка про живую воду / М.; Л.: Детгиз, 1953.
• Солнечные часы / М.; Л.: Детгиз, 1947.
• Солнечные часы / Ставрополь: Ставроп. правда, 1947.
• Стальные ребята / М.: Гиз, 1929.
• Стихи / М.; Л.: Детгиз, 1951.
• Стихи и сказки / М.: Детгиз, 1954.
• Тит полетит / М.: ЗИФ, 1925.
• У Черного моря / М.: Гиз, 1928.
• Универмаг / М.: Гиз, 1930.

Notes

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• Taganrog Encyclopedia (Энциклопедия Таганрога), 2nd edition, Taganrog, 2003