Childhood

Maxim Gorky

Maksim Gorky, also spelled Maxim Gorki, pseudonym of Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov' (born March 16, 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia—died June 14, 1936) Russian short-story writer and novelist who first attracted attention with his naturalistic and sympathetic stories of tramps and social outcasts and later wrote other stories, novels, and plays, including his famous 'The Lower Depths'. n the 1890s, Peshkov began writing. He adopted the pseudonym Maxim Gorky (choosing the name Gorky because it meant "bitter"). In 1892 his first short story "Makar Chudra," was published in various journals and became very popular with readers. Then, in 1895, the short story "Chelkash"—about a thief and a peasant boy—was published. In these and other pieces, Gorky wrote using knowledge gained from living in poverty and on the margins of society. His perspective won him great acclaim around the country, and he was soon viewed as one of its leading writers. In 1898 a Gorky collection, Sketches and Stories, was published. Gorky also produced full-length books and plays, beginning with the novel Foma Gordeyev (1899). His play The Lower Depths was performed in 1902; it became widely popular in Russia and throughout Europe. Gorky also penned the novel Mother (1906), a three-volume autobiography and literary portraits of fellow Russian writers such as Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov.