Yelizaveta Yakovlevna Tarakhovskaya was a Russian poet, playwright, translator, and author of children's books.

Biography

Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya (born Parnokh) was born in the city of Taganrog

Taganrog

Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History 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

Valentin Parnakh

Valentin Yakovlevich Parnakh was a Russian poet, translator, choreographer, and musician who is best remembered as a founding father of Soviet jazz.- Early years :...

. She graduated from the Taganrog Girls Gymnasium

Mariinskaya Gymnasium

The Mariinskaya Gymnasium in Taganrog on Chekhov Str. 104 - currently school No. 15 of the North Caucasus Railway – originated from two oldest educational establishments in the South of Russia: the Mariinskaya Gymnasium for Girls and the Railway Vocational School.- History of Gymnasium :The...

, later studied in Bestuzhev courses

Bestuzhev Courses

The Bestuzhev Courses were the largest and most prominent women's higher education institution in Imperial Russia.The institute opened its doors in 1878. It was named after Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the first director. Other professors included Baudouin de Courtenay, Alexander Borodin, Faddei...

 in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 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

Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet cosmonaut, and was the first woman in space. She was selected out of more than four hundred applicants, and then out of five finalists, to pilot Vostok 6 on the 16 June, 1963, becoming both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in...

, 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

Julian Tuwim

Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...

, Uzbek poet Kuddus Muhammadi (Muhammadiev), Azerbaijani poetess Mirvari Dilbazi, Georgian poetess Mariki Baratashvili, Lithuanian poet Edward Mejelaitis, Bulgarian poet Assen Bossev

Assen Bossev

Assen Bossev was a prominent Bulgarian author of children's literature, as well as a translator from Russian....

 and many more.

Today Tarakhovskaya is probably most known for her play By the Pike's Wish, which was staged by Sergey Obraztsov

Sergey Obraztsov

Sergey Vladimirovich Obraztsov was a Soviet and Russian puppeteer who is credited by the Encyclopædia Britannica with "establishing puppetry as an art form in the Soviet Union." Rod theaters in many countries of the world owe their establishment to Obraztsov's influence...

 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

Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...

's methods. It was also released as a motion picture in 1938 (directed by Aleksandr Rou

Aleksandr Rou

Alexander Arturovich Rou was a Soviet film director, People's Artist of RSFSR . He worked primarily in fairy-tale genre....

).

Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya died in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 on November 11, 1968 and was buried on Novodevichy Cemetery

Novodevichy Cemetery

Novodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....

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.