Sergei Dovlatov's 80th Birthday

Google Dooles 06.09.2021 02:31  Date: September 3, 2021 Today’s Doodle celebrates the 80th birthday of Russian journalist and author Sergei Dovlatov. Both at home and abroad, Dovlatov captured the contemporary experience of Soviet citizens and dissidents in his masterful yet irreverent writing—regarded among the most influential and widely read Russian literature of the late 20th-century. Sergei Dovlatov was born on this day in 1941 in the Eastern Russian city of Ufa and was raised in Leningrad in a family of creatives. He made his early living as a journalist and wrote fictional short stories that reflected the minutiae of daily Soviet life. Due to government censorship, his prose was first published in the late 1970s via samizdat, an underground publication network. Dovlatov emigrated to New York City in 1979, carrying a lone suitcase with the hope of literary freedom. He soon established himself in U.S. writing circles as the co-editor of “The New American,” a successful émigré newspaper. The first of his short stories were published in 1980 by “The New Yorker” which introduced a mass readership to Dovlatov’s trademark brand of Russian humor. After this success, he wrote a new book almost annually. This body of work includes “The Suitcase,” referenced in the Doodle artwork. This beloved 1986 collection of witty autobiographical short stories was inspired by the contents of the suitcase he carried with him to the U.S. Although his work wasn’t published in his home country until 1989, Dovlatov is a household name in Russia today. His legacy is concretized on Sergei Dovlatov Way, a New York City street corner where Dovlatov penned many of his most famous works. Happy Birthday, Sergei Dovlatov! Location: Tags: , , , ,