Aleksei Remizov

Born in Moscow in 1877, Aleksei Remizov became one of the distinctive voices of Russian modernism. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes him as a Symbolist writer with strong influence on Russian authors before and after the 1917 Revolution, while other reliable references note how his imagination often turned toward the fantastic, the grotesque, and the bizarre.

Early in life he was arrested in connection with student unrest and spent years in internal exile, an experience that marked both his life and writing. After returning, he became active in the literary world of St. Petersburg and developed a style shaped by folklore, old Russian language, oral storytelling, and vivid verbal invention.

Remizov later lived in emigration and died in Paris in 1957. Alongside his fiction, he was also known for his interest in calligraphy and the visual side of the written word, which fits the handmade, highly personal quality readers often feel in his books.