TRAITS FROM THE LIFE JOURNALIST AND WRITER N. N. ZHIVOTOV

The article reconstructs the biography of N. N. Zhivotov, an important but unexplored person in journalism and popular literature of the 1880s and 1890s, using the methodology of historical sociology of literature. N. N. Zhivotov is interesting not only as the author of popular crime novels and a reporter-researcher of a marginal city, but also as a typical actor in the literary and journalism field of this period. The study is based on materials provided by the Russian State Historical Archive, as well as newspapers from the 1880s and 1890s. The aim of the article is to describe the biography of N. N. Zhivotov, his journalistic and writing career, and to determine the influence of the socio-cultural and economic context of the 1880s on his career. This context is determined by the growth of publishing products and high competition in the publishing market. The article presents a detailed bibliography of the author, in particular information about where and when his novels and essays have been published in periodicals. The article describes Zhivotov’s editorial and publishing activities. The article describes his newspaper and magazine projects, namely the thematic reorganization of the magazine “Vestnik rossiyskogo obshchestva pokrovitel’stva zhivotnym”, the purchase and transformation of the magazine “Zvezda” as the part of newspaper “Svet”. Using biographical approach, the author’s biography was reconstructed, and the features of his editorial and publishing activities were established. The opinions of contemporaries about the activities of N. N. Zhivotov are presented. Zhivotov’s biography is demonstrated as a model typical for journalists of the 1880-1890s.