N.G. Garin-Mykhailovsky – a writer, «the knight of the railroads», «the merry righteous man», an educator. Review of the collective monograph «Russian wealth N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky: biography – writing – “samara text” – literary context – perception

This work is a review of the multi-authored monograph (prepared by the staff of the Samara Literary and Memorial Museum named after M. Gorky, Samara National Research University named after S.P. Korolev, Social and Humanitarian Institute (Department of Russian and Foreign Literature and Public Relations) «Russian Wealth» by N.G. Garin-Mykhaylovsky: biography – writing – “samara text” – literary context – perception», published in 2004 (сompiler Editor – M.A. Perepelkin, doctor of philological sciences, director of the Samara Literary and Memorial Museum named after M. Gorky, professor of Samara National Research University named after S.P. Korolev). The editors of the publication, memoirists, philological scientists have done a huge research work, supporting the remarkable Samara tradition in the field of literary local studies. N.G. Garin-Mykhailovsky cannot be classified as a «forgotten and secondary» writer, his works are in demand, and the amazing story «Tyoma’s Childhood» is not only popular, but also depicted in film. Nevertheless, the team that created the two-part monograph did a lot to remind about the features of the biography of the talented writer, tireless traveler, educator, whose works inspired such writers, separated by decades from each other, as A.I. Kuprin, N.N. Zlatovratskyi, K.M. Stanyukovich, M. Gorky, V.T. Shalamov, V.A. Chivykhin. The first part of the reviewed work contains memories of N.G. Garin-Mykhailovsky’s contemporaries (relatives, acquaintances) who reminded of the human charm of this unique person endowed with «an ardent fairy-tale fantasy». In the second part, the works performed in the field of textology and poetics proper are presented, which also contain valuable information about the connections of N.G. Garin-Mykhaylovsky with the writers who were directly related to Samara. We note that the articles of the monograph made significant additions to the «world of Garin-Mykhailovsky».