The poet Nikolai Gnedich, who lived at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, was an amazingly talented person. Despite the difficult childhood and no less difficult life in general, he successfully realized his penchant for literature, becoming very popular during his lifetime. Gnedich’s biography is not replete with vivid details, but the outstanding strength of the spirit of this person is respected.
The parents of the future poet, impoverished nobles, died when he was still a child. Smallpox, which Nikolai had been ill with at a young age, disfigured his face and caused the loss of his right eye. Due to his appearance problems, Gneddich became a very isolated and uncommunicative person. However, this did not prevent him from studying at the seminary, and subsequently successfully complete his studies at the philosophy department of Moscow University.
Even when he was a student, Nikolay Gnedich established friendly relations with a number of writers and poets, including Turgenev. Free time the poet devoted literary and theatrical activities. He tried to make money by publishing his translations of works by foreign authors. The transfers were warmly received and highly appreciated, but Nikolay Gnedich still didn’t have enough money to live on this money.
The most prominent of his achievements is the translation into Russian from the ancient Greek “Iliad” of Homer, on which he spent about 20 years. He was highly appreciated by A. S. Pushkin and G. Belinsky. Gnedich managed to solve financial problems after he was appointed librarian of the Imperial Public Library. The service brought income and at the same time left enough time for creativity.
The poet did not just love books – he collected them, sometimes long and unsuccessfully trying to find some rare specimen. In total, his personal collection contained more than 1,200 books, including many truly priceless ones. Nikolay Gnedich died before the 50th anniversary, due to complications caused by the flu.
