American Writers. American Classical Writers

American writer

Mark (real. Samuel Langhorn Clemens) (1835-1910) American writer, novel The Gilded Age (1873; together with C. Warner), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, story A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, a work " Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

American writer, who owns the words: " The best way cheer up - cheer up someone else

Which of the classics American Literature first brought to the publishing house a typewritten manuscript

The Writer Who Once Swapped Prince and Beggar

The very first home telephone in the world was installed in the apartment of this American writer

Who was the first writer to professionally read his works from the stage?

Pseudonym of the writer S. Clemens

. "Daddy" Tom Sawyer

. "Daddy" Tom Sawyer

Samuel Clemens

Mark... (alias of Samuel Clemens)

. "father" of Huckleberry Finn

. "parent" of Tom Sawyer

Invented by T. Sawyer

Mark... (pseudo Samuel Clemens)

Samuel Clemens

Invented by Tom Sawyer

He is Samuel Clemens

Mark from writers

Writer Samuel Clemens

Swapped the prince and the beggar

US Literature Classic

Classic of Literature from the States

Pseudonym of the writer Clemens

Nickname of Samuel Clemens

American writer, real name Clemens (1835-1910, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court")

(25.09.1987 – 06.07.1962)

Known as the master of the new American prose of the twentieth century. Originally from New Albany, Mississippi. William received an incomplete secondary education and took special courses at the University of pc. Mississippi. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I.

William Faulkner's most successful book is The Sound and the Fury. He was also famous for his works: “Absalom, Absalom!”, “Light in August”, “Sanctuary”, “When I was dying”, “Wild Palms”. The novels "Parable" and "The Kidnappers" were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Louis Lamour

(22.03.1908 – 10.06.1988)

Born in Jamestown (North Dakota) in the family of a veterinarian. From childhood he loved to read. The literary path began from poems and stories that he published in magazines. Changed many jobs: animal driver, boxer, lumberjack, sailor, gold digger.

Lamour is known as an excellent creator of westerns. The first one is " The Town No Guns Could Tame" (1940). He often published books under various pseudonyms (Tex Burns, Jim Mayo).

Lamour's short story "The Gift of Cochise", which he later turned into the novel "Hondo", is very popular. A film of the same name was based on this novel. Other successful books by Louis Lamour: The Quick and the Dead, The Devil with a Revolver, The Kiowa Trail, Sitka.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald

(24.09.1896 – 21.12.1940)

He was born in Saint Paul (Minnesota) in a wealthy Irish family. Studied at Saint Paul Academy, Newman School, Princeton University. I already started writing there. He married Zelda Sayre, with whom he held lavish receptions and parties.

He was the author of famous magazines, wrote stories, scripts in Hollywood. Fitzgerald's first book, This Side of Paradise (1920), big success. In 1922, he wrote the novel Beautiful but Doomed, and in 1925, The Great Gatsby, which was recognized by critics as a masterpiece of contemporary American literature.

Fitzgerald's works are also special in that they perfectly convey the atmosphere of the American "Jazz Age" of the 1920s (the term was introduced by the writer himself).

Harold Robbins

(21.05.1916 – 14.10.1997)

Real name is Francis Kane. Originally from New York. Some sources say that Francis grew up in an orphanage. Mastered different professions, but managed to get rich for a short while trading in sugar. After the ruin, he worked at Universal.

The first book, Never Love a Traveler, was banned in several American states, came out in 1948. Glory to Robbins was brought by the action-packed nature of his works. The most famous books by Francis Cain are Carpetbaggers, A Rock for Danny Fisher, Sin City, 79 Park Avenue.

Harold Robbins became literary example For three generations American writers, and films have been made based on many of his novels.

Stephen King

Received the nickname "King of Horror" for amazing works in the genres of horror, mysticism, science fiction, fantasy.

Born in Portlad (Maine) in the family of a merchant seaman. Stephen has been fond of mystical comics since childhood, he began writing at school. Works as a teacher, actor. Many of his books have become international bestsellers, and some of his works have been filmed.

Such novels by Stephen King as "Mr. Mercedes", "11/22/63", "Renaissance", "Under the Dome", "Dreamcatcher", "Land of Joy", the epic "" are widely known. Now, being an invalid, he continues to write.

Sydney Sheldon

(11.02.1917 – 30.01.2007)

Born in Chicago (pc. Illinois). He has been writing poetry since childhood. He worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, wrote musicals for the Broadway theater. Sidney Sheldon's first creation, Unmask (1970), was a huge success and earned the author an Edgar Allan Poe Award.

The writer appeared in the Guinness Book of Records for the number of translations of his works and received a nominal star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Mark Twain

(30.11.1835 – 21.04.1910)

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is an American writer and journalist. Originally from Florida (pc. Missouri).

From the age of 12, Samuel worked as a typesetter and created his own articles. Having reached the age of majority, he goes on a journey, reads a lot and works as a pilot's assistant. He was a Confederate and worked in the mines, where he began to compose stories.

He signed all his works with the pseudonym Mark Twain. Clemens wrote the famous book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the story The Prince and the Pauper, the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and after opening his own publishing house, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Memoirs and others are published. brilliant works of a recognized classic of the 19th century, a master of adventure literature.

Ernest Hemingway

(21.07.1899 – 02.07.1961)

World famous writer and journalist. Born in Oak Park (Illinois) in the family of a doctor. From an early age he was fond of sports, fishing, hunting and literature. After leaving school, he worked as a reporter.

Hemingway was not accepted into the army, but he voluntarily took part in the First World War, where he was seriously wounded. His first book is Three Stories and Ten Poems. The writer distinguished himself by his specific abilities to create in the style of realism and existentialism.

His life full of travels and adventures was reflected in many famous works: "The Old Man and the Sea", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "Farewell to Arms!" and others. In 1954, Ernest Hemingway deservedly received Nobel Prize on literature.

Daniela Steel

Master romance novels. Born in New York in a well-to-do family. Received education in French school Design and New York University.

Worked as a copywriter and PR specialist. The first novel "The House", conceived in student years, was only published in 1973.

Almost all further books by Danielle Steel became bestsellers. Most books read writers are considered novels: “His bright light», « Family bonds”,“ Night of magic ”,“ Forbidden love”, “Diamond bracelet”, “Voyage”.

A considerable amount. Daniela Steele is the proud owner of the French Legion of Honor.

Dr. Seuss

Greetings from Russia, where soup is a full meal and mullet is still quite a trendy haircut, and where no one will laugh or explain to you how useless your university degree in literature is.

A good example of a mullet hairstyle (“fishtail” - a hairstyle popular in the 80s with long hair back and short on the sides and front). Photo: Globallookpress.com

It is difficult to put into words how strange and special this place seems. Five weeks is incredible short term in order to experience and describe in one letter 12 centuries of Russian history. Nevertheless, I will try to talk about what I happened to see and hear, about the people I met (and did not smile at them! - but more on that later ...) and the delicious (and completely inedible) things that I tried .

First Impressions

I knew in advance that Moscow does not believe in tears. Now I can add that Moscow, no doubt, also does not believe in laughter or smiles. If you are a lover of a piercing laugh or somehow publicly express your joy, it is much better to go somewhere in latin america. Here, people do not joke with each other on the street. Do you want to catch a sizzling look on yourself? Just walk down the street, speak English, and then laugh out loud. It seems to me that the only way to earn a more angry look in Moscow is to speak German and then fart loudly. Or just speak German. Perhaps this will be enough.

People here walk with extremely determined, concentrated and stern facial expressions. It's not that it's very different from other big cities like New York, but there's a particular clear reluctance in Muscovites to notice other people around them. Maybe that's why the people cleaning the streets are wearing fluorescent orange vests. By the way, the streets in Moscow are constantly being cleaned. And not two hours pass without a sweeper driving by, pouring water over the roads and sweeping away numerous spit and cigarette butts.

Yes, people smoke here. At bus stops, park benches, and even when cycling. If you wonder how tobacco companies still manage to make money when smoking in some states is already considered no less a sin than infanticide, come to Russia - you will understand everything as soon as you see the first beautiful 40-year-old woman who actually 25 years old.

Spitting in the street seems to be a national hobby of certain categories of men. It looks almost like baseball, with a few exceptions - they don't throw the ball, they don't bat it, they don't catch it, and they don't run around the field. It seems that only Tajiks, who play the role of Mexicans in Russia, do not spit on the asphalt. “Of course, they have to clean it all up,” the wife notes.

During my trip, I experienced the same sensations several times. As soon as it began to seem to me that I was surrounded by terrible, rude and disrespectful people, immediately someone would suddenly do something exceptionally kind and caring for our family - for example, hold the door. And I immediately felt embarrassed for my thoughts.

On one of the first days in Moscow, we - my wife, son, his grandmother and I - went for a walk. Along the canal, past joggers lavishly drenched in cologne and old men reading newspapers on benches. “Oh, look, someone is swimming! Over there, right under the No-swimming sign!

Man old age, clad in extremely inappropriate thong swimming trunks, cut through the dirty waters of the canal with a butterfly, recognized Russian authorities unsuitable for swimming. Even ducks in shock blurred into different sides. At that moment, I remembered Russian teenagers climbing tall buildings for no apparent reason - a nation of lovers of unjustified risk. I looked at my son in the stroller. He had already managed to take off one sock and slept peacefully among all this wild nature and elderly people who could not read the signs, putting his bare foot out into the inexplicably tasty Russian air.

We climbed the iron footbridge to see how the lock works. A group of brutal-looking young guys, dressed in the best traditions of the West Side Story gang, were smoking and looking at me. I, as expected, did not smile and with all my appearance tried to make it clear that it was better not to mess with me, as much as possible when pushing a stroller in front of you.

One of the hooligans began to move towards me, and I already imagined how I would fight all three of them alone. The guy with the rat tail mumbled something in Russian at me without smiling. I, also not smiling, portrayed a frightening face in response. "What did he say?" I whispered to my wife. She, unmistakably reading the growing rage in my eyes, quickly asked the guy again. "He wanted to warn that our son had lost his sock," was the reply. I looked down at my already clenched and ready to fight fists, and I felt ashamed.

Outskirts

“Please stop smiling at strangers! This is not America for you, where everyone is falsely nice to each other, ”said my wife on the very first day of our trip, when we were walking somewhere in residential area Moscow. Up to this point, I habitually greeted everyone I met with a smile and a nod of my head, as any well-mannered boy who grew up in one of the southern states should, where not to do this would mean to behave extremely rude and uncivilized.

Jack tries to stop smiling.

What did Jack White of the White Stripes say about moving to Nashville? He wanted to live in a city where, if he had a heart attack on the street, passers-by would immediately rush to his aid. So, that same heart attack would definitely have been fatal on the streets of Moscow. Each of my timid unauthorized smiles was met with at least a lot of suspicion (except for those that were intended for pretty girls), and at the most - a direct threat in the look. I quickly realized that smiling at unfamiliar Russian men is the shortest way to get in the face.

Later, I learned that this initial closeness is not at all harshness or rudeness, but a preventive measure that preserves the precious soulfulness that is inside each of us. For Russians, kindness and sympathy are too valuable qualities that they do not want to waste on all sorts of dubious strangers. It is unthinkable for them to distribute this value right and left, to everyone they meet.

“We have strangers here - these are strangers. Friends are friends,” the wife explained. And as soon as you move into the “friends” category, you are suddenly surrounded by some of the warmest people I have ever met in my entire life.

The outskirts of Moscow as a whole do not differ much from other large cities. On the streets with surprisingly wide sidewalks there are shops and cafes, trams run, families with strollers walk, elderly people sit on benches and, as usual, argue about their elderly things.

What struck me here was the number of parks and benches. It is impossible to walk even 100 meters without stumbling upon some shady square with a fountain or a playground. And benches - benches! - before that, I had never been to places where people like to just sit around, look around and think about life.

Perhaps there is some mathematical formula that relates the number of benches in a given city to the number of vacation days of workers living in it. By the way, in America you can hardly find at least one bench and almost no one ever goes on vacation. In addition, Americans, for some completely inexplicable reason, are very proud of it. And all because our country was founded by the Puritans, who believed that after death they would not go to heaven if during their lifetime they did not work above the norm. Fortunately, the idea of ​​proudly selling one's life for a salary has not taken root in almost any other country in the world (hello Japan!).

In Russia, where the average life expectancy is almost 10 years less than in the United States, the arithmetic in the head is in favor of sitting on benches and savoring life. Even if this savoring is accompanied by drinking alcohol and smoking several cigarettes in a row.

Remember, there was such an old joke: communism is when people pretend that they work, and the state pretends that it pays them. So, it seems that in our time, fewer and fewer people even try to pretend.

Country house

After my first failure in the field of interaction with the Moscow public, it was decided that the beginning of the trip would be better spent in the calm and peaceful atmosphere of our family dacha.

Thanks to Kia, we had the opportunity to move around in our own car, and I did not have to experience all the delights of stations and commuter trains (I was explained that I should be very happy about this).

When you finally get out of Moscow - and this is not as easy as it might seem at first glance, given the traffic and crazy drivers - the road passes along a newly built highway, almost empty, where everyone drives like in Mad Max. There are no speed limit signs here at all, so we joined in the frenzy by making sure that our Kia Cerato behaves perfectly at decent enough speeds. None of the payment terminals have even been installed yet, so when approaching the payment zone, you just need to slow down and squeeze between the concrete parapets. The taxi driver who took us to the airport joked that by the time they put up the payment terminals, the road would be broken up to such a state that there would essentially be nothing to pay for.

Not our cottage.

And further on for miles and miles around are birch thickets. As soon as you fly up to the city, you immediately notice it. Any major city in America - Los Angeles, Chicago, New York or Washington - is surrounded by numerous residential areas with houses, sports fields, plazas and supermarkets. Flying up to Moscow, you see a dense forest surrounding the city.

The beauty of wildlife in such close proximity to the city is difficult to overestimate. It looks like the rolling plains of West Virginia, but it smells twice as sweet. Wild flowers line the road, bright blue skies, and the only sounds around are birds and barking dogs.

I spent my first evening at the dacha getting drunk with my mother-in-law on her homemade vodka tinctures, eating them with pickled tomatoes, along the way ineptly using my terrible Russian in an attempt to talk to my new kind and hospitable relatives.

A scene from the film "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears".

The days at the cottage passed slowly and lazily. Against a backdrop of apple and raspberry bushes, daisies and fir trees, I gathered grass, sawed wood with a chainsaw, and read about Zapotec rituals while my son slumbered peacefully in the shade. Only one night there was a severe thunderstorm with terrible thunder and dozens of lightning illuminating the sky. An extremely impressive sight.

If there is a paradise somewhere, the dacha is very similar to it. The only thing in paradise, most likely, for lunch they give something other than soup. Russians take soup at lunch very seriously. During our trip, I had lunch with almost all possible varieties of soup - borscht, soup with olives and sausages, okroshka, mushroom soup, soup with barley and pickles ... Name any! Every day I went to lunch, knowing that there would be soup. I had to get used to it sooner or later.

And dessert right after the meal. At the end of every meal, before I had even finished eating what was on my plate, I was promptly given a piece of cake or a cookie or both, accompanied by the invariable cup of hot black tea.

“Neighbors invite you to a traditional tea party with a samovar,” I heard one fine day.

I don't really like company strangers. I prefer to stay in my nutshell. What did Bukowski say there? “I don’t hate people at all, I just feel better when they are not around.” Therefore, I was understandably not happy about this news, which meant that I would have to play the American fool all evening among people whom I did not know and with whom I did not have not only common language but also newly acquired family ties.

It only proves how stupid I am sometimes. Needless to say, tea drinking with a samovar turned out to be one of the most memorable days in a long time, and the neighbors in the dacha were the nicest people I have ever met in Russia.

While the samovar was being heated, I was invited into the house and they began showing me the stove, dressing me in ridiculous traditional Russian accessories and taking pictures. Feeling a little like a clown, I nevertheless decided to enjoy a rare moment of general Russian fun, thinking that I was doing some kind of ritual dance that made rain in the Sahara desert. Handshakes and pats on the shoulder. Oh yeah!

Then I was escorted to the bathhouse, informed that I could come and sit in the hot room and whip myself with leaves whenever I felt like it. Oke-ee-ee.

When the tea was ready, we all sat down at the table, and suddenly it turned out that under the code name "tea drinking" in Russia there was an event "drunk an American to a half-sane state before sunset." Could I have expected better...

Some tea, intricate toasts, vodka - different vodka! - more toast, a piece of cheese here, salami there, more tea, more vodka, more toast... Oh, chocolates! Already slightly drunk, I reached for a vase and pulled out one at random.

“No, no… here, try this one!” - said one of the hospitable hosts and handed me another candy, smiling slyly at the other. My side of the table - the one on which the men sat - went silent. I unwrapped the wrapper, popped the candy in my mouth and bit into it. My tongue was immediately enveloped in some kind of chocolate-alcohol extravaganza. The men smiled. "And inside - vodka!" one of them said and burst out laughing.

Chocolate candy filled with vodka - I'm not kidding! And you know what? The most delicious thing! It's as if after the Second World War, the Russians decided to spoil the Germans also their dearly beloved delicacy, filling it with vodka and making it even better. I'm not lying, I could eat a box of these candies right now.

While the sun was setting and the tea was cooling in the samovar, we told the stories of our families and discussed my thoughts about Russia. At that moment, I thought that Russia is still heaven on earth. With or without soup.

Roads

I could only guess about how they drive in Russia, watching videos on YouTube, in which it was sometimes hard to believe in the reality of what was happening, and listening to my wife's comments from the series: “Is this a traffic jam? You've never seen traffic!" Well, as I already said, thanks to Kia, on this trip I was able to experience all the delights of Moscow driving personally. Looking ahead, I’ll say that by some miracle we managed to avoid minor accidents that are constantly encountered on the roads here.

The vicissitudes of traffic for us were smoothed out by a very comfortable ride in a brand new car, in which our son peacefully slept through almost all Moscow traffic jams (and this, you know, is a very important indicator for young parents who dream of at least one extra hour of silence a day). However, the silence was brightened up by my music from the iPod, which I could directly connect to the stereo system - it's easier to ignore the obscurantism surrounding the roads.

The traffic in Moscow is just terrible. Bumper to bumper, diesel-smoking, cigarette-smoking, excruciating traffic. Here, six lanes are combined into two, there is a guy in a Harley trying to squeeze between the lanes, a traffic light that does not switch for probably 30 minutes, collects a standing traffic jam a kilometer long. Homeless people begging at crossroads, women with pictures of dying children, veterans without legs. Reminds me of Baltimore...

As elsewhere in Moscow, on the roads there are all extremes of the spectrum material security. Mirrored Mercedes hustling along the roundabout with crumbling Ladas that appear to be running on a low-octane mixture of permafrost and human poop.

The only pity is that there are very few classic sports cars. Although I still managed to see several outstanding representatives of the American classics of the 60s and 70s on the roads.

By the way, about octane - in Russia there is no gasoline below 91. It was very interesting for me to see how much it costs to travel by car here. Gasoline prices seemed very reasonable to me, and our car consumed it really sparingly, so this item of expenditure hardly left a noticeable mark on our budget.

The shops

We were heading back to the Moscow apartment, and we had to buy groceries for a week. Therefore, we ended up in a place that I personally consider the most terrible place in Russia, and quite possibly the most terrible in my life.

After parking and going inside, I immediately found myself among a mass of unhappy and oblivious people around, pushing carts past, and sometimes at each other. At the same time, they do not look into each other's eyes, do not say a word, and generally seem to be playing some kind of passive-aggressive game to see how soon the first murder occurs. I ended up at Ashan.

A woman in her 70s pushed me away with her cart to get closer to the fish counter. No "sorry" for you. Yes, not a word at all. Is there a cart in your way? Just push her away. Why? Yes, because to hell with this cart, that's why. Is someone waiting for you to leave to pass? I don't care, I got up here first, they'll wait.

Do you know why all Auchan visitors can afford to behave like this? Because in Russia people don't have weapons. You can think whatever you want about American gun culture, but thanks to it, no one there behaves like Russians who have gathered for shopping at Auchan.

IN Lately Russians are clearly not particularly afraid of being shot by their compatriot. In fact, it seems that they just made some kind of secret agreement among themselves to publicly treat each other like a piece of shit. Therefore, no one is particularly upset, endlessly confronted with petty insults that make up the average day of a Russian who decides to buy corn flakes for breakfast.

According to my wife, the habits of the times of scarcity are still alive in people, when there was only one pair of shoes at all on the shelf and it was necessary to get it for your child, at any cost. The only problem is that they now behave like this in a place where there is anything, in any quantity. There are enough shoes for absolutely all children. After all, there's even an Adidas store right next door to Kentucky Fried Chicken!

How these people managed to get together and shoot the king with his entire family, when they do not even say “good morning” to each other, if they do not know each other, I will never know.

Center

Walking in the center of Moscow, I saw two black guys. My first impulse was to walk up to them and say: “Hey man, what the fuck are you guys doing here in Russia?” And then I heard them talking to each other in Russian and my brain exploded. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get used to black people speaking Russian," I thought aloud. “Just like the Russians themselves,” the wife immediately replied.

The city center is beautiful in summer. Girls with excellent figures in translucent sundresses, theaters, statues of great writers, black BMWs lined up along the Duma. Cafes and elegant parks, Stalinist architecture, long boulevards I saw on the news as a child lined with tanks and military equipment during the parade. Businessmen in well-tailored suits and Italian snakeskin boots, gangsters who want to look like gangsters, and parking workers, finding a place in which, by the way, is not a task for the faint of heart.

Despite the vicissitudes of the transport system, we managed to see a lot of things, even managed to get on a real diesel submarine! But I will talk about a couple of particularly memorable moments:

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We caught the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is amazing how similar our Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers are and how seriously both countries take the responsibility for their maintenance. With the exception of Sbarro and McDonald's, which are exactly opposite, this is a purely Russian feature. Just like Chinese tourists, for some reason asking permission to photograph our son.

I really like how much here is dedicated to the victory over the Nazis. Russians love to walk Nazi symbols, in direct and figuratively. Even main statue near Red Square symbolically tramples on a swastika.

Here they say: “And do you really think that it was YOU who won World War II ?!” The United States lost less than half a million people in this war. The Russians lost more than twenty. Twenty. Million. Of people. Keep that in mind the next time you watch Saving Private Ryan.

Bulgakov Museum

Doctor, science fiction writer, big admirer of Cervantes - Mikhail Bulgakov has always been close to my heart. The staircase leading to his apartment is as impressive as the museum itself. I am very glad that the Russians decided to perpetuate the memory of him in this way - scribbled walls, a bottle left on the windowsill, a creative mess in the apartment itself. I kept thinking that I would have to re-read The Master and Margarita as soon as I got home.

Space Museum

One of the first dates with my then-future wife we ​​spent in National Museum Air and Space in Washington DC. Therefore, it is not surprising that, once in Moscow, we decided to repeat the experience. Great place, definitely worth a visit!

In such museums, I always think about what would happen if our countries were not implacable enemies during the Cold War? between themselves. Perhaps it was this fact of competition that allowed both countries to achieve so much, and I should be grateful that they decided to focus all their efforts on precisely such cool stuff like rockets and space flights.

We stopped by the museum cafe, which, according to the announcement, was supposed to sell space food. For some reason, only tubes of meat and small packages of Pringles chips were available at an inflated price. This place is starting to remind me more and more of America...

Izmailovsky vernissage

“I have lived in Moscow all my life, but I have never been here,” my wife said, and we drove off. The atmosphere of this absolutely surreal place is difficult to convey in words. Paint peeling off everything that was once painted, the smell of meat cooking on an open fire, huge figures of unknown creatures, a staircase with a pirate ship ... They sell a great variety of the most diverse and ridiculous things here - matryoshka dolls with Kiss faces, stuffed animals , AK-47 magazines and rifle scopes, birch canes and exquisite chess sets, stacks of painted dollars and vinyl records with timeless, according to local sellers, classics.

Having purchased a set of Soviet anti-American posters, ate a barbecue and received an unexpected little present for a son from one of the flea market sellers, tired but satisfied, we went home, seriously considering options for transporting paintings to America.

Muzeon and Gorky Park

A walk through Muzeon Park and Gorky Park has become one of the brightest and most memorable moments of our trip. Perhaps this the best place in Moscow - along with the metro - to watch people.

Kids trying to skateboard (for some reason, not very successful every time) and adult hipsters on scooters (seriously?! The maximum age for a scooter is 14. If you are older and continue to ride a scooter, you look like a complete idiot and deserve it so that everyone mercilessly mocked you).

City beach, for some reason occupied exclusively by half-naked men. (Is this the very same gay propaganda that Putin is so fiercely trying to fight?) And here is the one and only half-naked sunbathing girl, she looks very nervous.

A pretty girl reading a book on a bench only to occasionally look around and see who notices her sitting on a bench reading a book. I spotted you pretty girl! By the way, this is one of the saddest scenes I have seen in Moscow, including even a homeless man who has frostbite and lost all his toes, begging at the entrance to the subway.

Teenagers smoking cigarettes and flirting with each other. Being a teenager in Russia must be a lot of fun. Cigarettes are everywhere, European attitudes towards sex, cultural approval of alcohol and gloomy thoughts ... Yes, they should be the envy of the entire Western world!

Children play in one of the playgrounds that could never legally appear in the United States. Damn it, just look at this hill! On it, a child can really have a normal childhood!

Ice cream, cotton candy, huge pillows on the grass, trendy restaurants, fountains and families walking. I heard they even have tango lessons here now.

Yes, I would like to return to Gorky Park in my old age. I would sit on a bench with a pencil and notepad, smoking one cigarette after another. Maybe one day someone would come up to me and say, “Jack Milston? American writer? I remember scrolling through your stupid article about Russia on my smartphone while sitting in the toilet.” And then I would have nodded and continued to thoughtfully feed the pigeons. Not smiling.

Men

Men in Russia seem to try to be brutal gangsters. If we all play some kind of role, then Russian men all want to be different versions of Steve McQueen.

Steve McQueen American actor, also known as a car and motorcycle racer. Not Russian

They never smile at each other, but I did find a way to greet strangers on the street. I called this the "Steve McQueen Smile 20% Rule". So, for starters, you nod your head and frown your brows, as if you are agreeing with him to fight together against some common enemy in the future. At the same time, it's important! - you smile no more than 20% of your normal smile. Don't show your teeth. Show off your best Steve McQueen smile. And almost every time you get a "Steve McQueen smile" in return. Otherwise, look at him as if you want to kill him. It seems to be respectful here.

Russian men are undisputed winners in the world handshake championship. I have traveled the world a lot and shaken hundreds of hands. Russia is the country of the most meaningful handshakes. Strong, serious, they contain the perfect 50/50 mix of "you can count on me" and "do not try to mess with me."

But what they lack is nobility. Men in Russia are not knights at all. Here they say: "He beats - it means he loves." Guys, do you really want this phrase to be your world famous slogan?

Girls constantly say that there are no men left here at all. Yes, here they are! It's just that they're very busy pushing away dazzlingly beautiful girls on the subway that get in their way, instead of holding the door for them and getting to know each other.

(I still blame Auchan...)

Women

I remember the first time I realized that all the propaganda of my youth is complete nonsense. "Introduction to the Russian language" at the university in the late 90s. Up to this point, I had assumed that all Russian women were like East German swimmers, pushing shots like tennis balls and breaking bottles on their heads. Needless to say, this stereotype imposed on us, fortunately, had nothing to do with reality.

We had a professor's assistant - a fragile young Russian girl who liked to wear translucent sundresses with a very limited amount of underwear under them in the summer. If you were sitting on the west side of the classroom, opposite the window through which the rays of the morning sun shone, from time to time her almost naked, gorgeous figure flashed in front of you.

I didn't miss a single class. And he never again believed rumors about foreign women, including those that claim that Russian girls are the most beautiful in the world. Although this is pure truth because I married one of them.

But, to be honest, it seems to me that the number of beautiful girls relative to the total population in Russia is greatly exaggerated. They are about as common here as in any other country. However, the top 5% of beautiful Russian women are much more beautiful than the top 5% in the whole world. I was convinced of this when I visited Moscow. I could not fail to notice that beautiful girls seem to have an extremely high opinion of themselves here.

What I like about Russian girls is that they are not shy about literally eating you with their eyes. You can be married, twist wedding ring on your finger, push the stroller in front of you, and she will still try to embarrass you, intently examining you from head to toe, passing by in her translucent sundress.

Do you know why Russian girls are beautiful? Because on the first date you can talk about Chekhov with them, and they will wonder why you thought that this was an inappropriate topic for talking on a date.

Food

When someone asks me what America has given to the world, the two simplest answers are rock and roll and the bacon cheeseburger. The latter are in Moscow, I checked. Sometimes they are very successful, as, for example, in the classic Starlite Diner, and sometimes not so much, as in the hipster Strelka.

But, of course, I tried to try as much Russian as possible. Mostly I came across healthy, tasty and amazing food. There were, however, extremely disgusting options. I even made a list!

Instead of a conclusion

Thank you for reading all this, D. I know this is the longest letter an American has received since the Civil War.

I came here to meet new family members and get to know Russia. Well, the place! I really - and this is the pure truth, not American marketing - did not want to leave here. This place is so complicated and confusing, sometimes funny (hello to an 11-year-old boy in a Canadian Gigolo T-shirt), that I could stay and write more and more about it. There are many things to be proud of in their culture. But there is still so much that I do not know, and even more that I do not understand and, most likely, will never understand.

There are a lot of things that make Americans and Russians very similar - both of them, for example, sit in their cars and pick their noses, thinking no one can see them. Both of them look like narcissistic jerks when they use selfie sticks. Both are equally embarrassed as they quickly pass a homeless beggar without even looking at him, let alone giving him some change.

I will definitely come back to Russia, this place hooked me. My family and my new Russian friends, who are so open-hearted and open, have made Russia a truly remarkable place for me. Never before have I felt so welcome in such a strange place where I have never been before. Although, almost every one of them, asking how I am here, looked at me incredulously when I said that I really like it here. I don't have enough words to thank them for everything they have done for me.

See you next summer, Moscow!

Your humble eternal friend,
Jack".

Jack Milston
Writer and traveller. Traveled the world, started a family and settled on the ocean. He loves baseball, bourbon and the "Immortal Geniuses" of ancient Chinese poetry.

The United States of America can rightly be proud of literary heritage, which was left by the best American writers. beautiful works continue to be created even now, however, for the most part they are fiction and mass literature, which does not carry any food for thought.

The best recognized and unrecognized American writers

Critics still debate whether fiction is beneficial to humans. Someone says that it develops imagination and a sense of grammar, and also broadens one's horizons, and individual works can even change the worldview. Some people think it's only good for reading. scientific literature containing practical or factual information that can be used in everyday life and develop not spiritually or morally, but materially and functionally. Therefore, American writers write in a huge number of very different directions - the literary "market" of America is as large as its cinema and pop scene are diverse.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft: master of the real nightmare

Since the American people are greedy for everything bright and unusual, the literary world of Howard Phillips Lovecraft turned out to be just to their taste. It was Lovecraft who gave the world stories about the mythical deity Cthulhu, who fell asleep at the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago and will wake up only when the time of the apocalypse comes. Lovecraft has a huge fan base around the world, and bands, songs, albums, books, and movies are named after him. Incredible world, which the Master of Horrors created in his works, never ceases to frighten even the most inveterate and experienced horror fans. Stephen King himself was inspired by Lovecraft's talent. Lovecraft created a whole pantheon of gods and frightened the world with terrible prophecies. When reading his works, the reader feels a completely inexplicable, incomprehensible and very powerful fear, although the author almost never directly describes what should be feared. The writer forces the reader's imagination to work in such a way that he himself presents the most terrible pictures, and this literally freezes the blood in the veins. Despite the highest writing skills And recognizable style, many American writers were unrecognized during their lifetime, and Howard Lovecraft was among them.

Master of monstrous descriptions - Stephen King

Inspired by the worlds created by Lovecraft, Stephen King has created a lot of great works, many of which have been filmed. Such American writers as Douglas Clegg, Jeffrey Deaver and many others bowed before his skill. Stephen King is still creating, although he has repeatedly admitted that because of his works, unpleasant supernatural things often happened to him. One of his most famous books with a short but loud title "It" excited millions. Critics complain that it is almost impossible to convey all the horror of his works in film adaptations, but brave directors are trying to do this to this day. King's books such as " Dark tower”, “Necessary things”, “Carrie”, “Dreamcatcher”. Stephen King knows how not only to create an inflating, tense atmosphere, but also offers the reader a lot of completely disgusting and detailed descriptions dismembered bodies and other not too pleasant things.

Classic Fiction by Harry Harrison

American science fiction writer Harry Harrison is still very popular in quite wide circles. His style light, and the language is uncomplicated and understandable, and these qualities of his works make them suitable for readers of almost any age. Garrison's plots are extremely interesting, and the characters are original and interesting, so everyone can find a book to their liking. One of the most famous books Garrison, "Indomitable Planet" boasts a twisted plot, distinctive characters, good humor and even a beautiful romantic line. This American science fiction writer made people think about the dangers of too much technological progress, and whether we really need to travel to outer space, if we can not yet control ourselves and our own planet. Harrison showed how to create science fiction which will be understandable to both children and adults.

Max Barry and his books for the progressive consumer

Many modern American writers place their main bet on the consumer nature of man. On the shelves of bookstores today you can find a lot of fiction telling about the adventures of fashionable and stylish heroes in the field of marketing, advertising and other big business. However, even among such books you can find real pearls. Max Barry's work sets the bar so high for contemporary authors that only truly original writers can jump over it. His novel Syrup centers on the story of a young man named Skat who dreams of a brilliant career in advertising. The ironic style, the apt use of strong language, and the stunning psychological pictures of the characters made the book a bestseller. "Syrup" got its own film adaptation, which did not become as popular as the book, but practically did not yield to it in quality, since Max Barry himself helped the screenwriters work on the film.

Robert Heinlein: a fierce critic of public relations

Until now, there are disputes about which writers can be considered modern. Critics believe that they can also be attributed to their category, and after all, modern American writers should write in a language that would be understandable to today's person and would be interesting to him. Heinlein coped with this task one hundred percent. His satirical-philosophical novel "Passing the Valley of the Shadow of Death" shows all the problems of our society, using a very original plot device. Main character- an elderly man whose brain was transplanted into the body of his young and very beautiful secretary. A lot of time in the novel is devoted to the themes of free love, gay and lawlessness in the name of money. We can say that the book "Passing the Valley of the Shadow of Death" is a very harsh, but at the same time extremely talented satire, exposing modern American society.

and food for hungry young minds

American Classical Writers most of all they concentrated on philosophical, significant issues and directly on the design of their works, and further demand was almost of no interest to them. IN contemporary literature, released after 2000, it is difficult to find something truly deep and original, since all the topics have already been skillfully revealed by the classics. This is seen in the books in the Hunger Games series, pen-owned young writer Susan Collins. Many thoughtful readers doubt that these books deserve any attention, as they are nothing more than a parody of real literature. First of all, in the Hunger Games series, designed for young readers, the theme is love triangle, set off by the pre-war state of the country and the general atmosphere of the most severe totalitarianism. Screen adaptations of Suzanne Collins' novels hit the box office, and the actors who played the leading characters in them became famous all over the world. Skeptics about this book say that it is better for young people to read at least this than not to read at all.

Frank Norris and his for the common people

Some famous American writers are practically unknown to any far from classical literary world to the reader. This can be said, for example, about the work of Frank Norris, who did not stop from creating the amazing work "Octopus". The realities of this work are far from the interests of a Russian person, but Norris' unique writing style invariably attracts lovers of good literature. When we think of American farmers, we always imagine smiling, happy, and tanned people with expressions of gratitude and humility on their faces. Frank Norris showed real life these people without embellishing it. In the novel "The Octopus" there is no hint of the spirit of American chauvinism. American loved to talk about life ordinary people and Norris was no exception. It looks like the question social injustice and insufficient pay for hard work will worry people of all nationalities in any historical time.

Francis Fitzgerald and his reprimand to unlucky Americans

The great American writer Francis has found a "second popularity" after the release of the recent film adaptation of his excellent novel "The Great Gatsby". The film made the youth read the classics of American literature, and the performer leading role Leonardo DiCaprio was predicted to win an Oscar, but as always, he didn't get it. The Great Gatsby is a very small novel that vividly illustrates the perverted American morality, masterfully showing the cheap human inside. The novel teaches that friends cannot be bought, just as love cannot be bought. Main character novel, narrator Nick Carraway describes the whole situation from his point of view, which gives the whole plot a spice and a little ambiguity. All characters are very original and perfectly illustrate not only the American society of that time, but also our today's realities, as people will never stop hunting for material wealth, despising spiritual depth.

Both poet and prose writer

The poets and writers of America have always been remarkable for their amazing versatility. If today authors can create only prose or only poetry, then in the past such preference was considered almost bad taste. For example, the aforementioned Howard Phyllit Lovecraft, in addition to amazing creepy stories also wrote poetry. It is especially interesting that his poems were much brighter and more positive than prose, although they provide no less food for thought. Lovecraft's inspirational genius, Edgar Allan Poe, also created great poems. Unlike Lovecraft, Poe did this much more often and much better, so some of his poems are heard today. The poems of Edgar Allan Poe contained not only amazing metaphors and mystical allegories, but also had philosophical overtones. Who knows, perhaps the modern master of the horror genre, Stephen King, will also sooner or later hit poetry, tired of complex sentences.

Theodore Dreiser and "An American Tragedy"

The life of ordinary people and the rich was described by many classical authors Cast: Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Bernard Shaw, O'Henry. The American writer Theodore Dreiser also followed this path, placing more emphasis on the psychologism of the characters than directly on the description of everyday problems. His novel An American Tragedy superbly presented the world with a prime example of one that collapses due to the wrong moral choices and vanity of the protagonist. The reader, oddly enough, does not at all feel sympathy for this character, because only a real villain, who causes nothing but contempt and hatred, can violate all societies so indifferently. In this guy, Theodore Dreiser embodied those people who want to break out of the shackles of a society that is contrary to them at any cost. However, is it really that good? high society that for the sake of it you can kill an innocent person?

Instruction

Perhaps the first American writer who managed to gain worldwide fame was the poet and, at the same time, the founder of detective genre Edgar Allan Poe. Being a deep mystic by nature, Poe was not at all like an American. Perhaps that is why his work, not finding followers in the writer's homeland, had a noticeable impact on European literature of the modern era.

great place The United States is occupied by adventure novels, which are based on the development of the continent and the relationship of the first settlers with the indigenous population. The largest representatives this trend was James Fenimore Cooper, who wrote a lot and fascinatingly about the Indians and the clashes of American colonists with them, Mine Reed, whose novels masterfully combine a love line and a detective-adventure intrigue, and Jack London, who sang of the courage and courage of the pioneers of the harsh lands of Canada and Alaska .

One of the most remarkable American 19th century is the outstanding satirist Mark Twain. His works such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" are read with equal interest by both young and adult readers.

Henry James lived in Europe for many years, but did not stop being an American writer. In his novels "Wings of the Dove", "The Golden Cup" and others, the writer showed naive and simple-minded Americans by nature, who often fall victim to the intrigues of insidious Europeans.

Of particular note in the American 19th century is the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose anti-racist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin largely contributed to the liberation of blacks.

The first half of the 20th century could be called the American Renaissance. At this time, such wonderful authors as Theodore Dreiser, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway create their works. Dreiser's first novel, Sister Carrie, whose heroine achieves success at the cost of losing her best human qualities, at first seemed immoral to many. Based on crime chronicle The novel "An American Tragedy" turned into a story of the collapse of the "American Dream".

The works of the king of the Jazz Age (a term coined by himself) Francis Scott Fitzgerald are largely based on autobiographical motifs. First of all, this refers to the magnificent novel Tender is the Night, where the writer told the story of his difficult and painful relationship with his wife Zelda. The collapse of the "American dream" Fitzgerald showed in famous novel"The Great Gatsby".

A tough and courageous perception of reality distinguishes creativity Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway. Among the most outstanding works of the writer are the novels Farewell to Arms!, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea.