The life of Mikhail Prishvin, an negligent and audacious student expelled from the Yelets gymnasium on a report from his teacher V. V. Rozanov; an insecure young man, a Marxist imprisoned for his revolutionary views; a student of the Leipzig University; a writer-naturalist and a researcher of sects; one who earned the indulgent attention of Z. N. Gippius, D. S. Merezhkovsky, and A. A. Blok; a village dweller who said no end of bitter things about the Russian countryside and the muzhiks; and finally, a knight adorned with orders, treated well by the authorities—his life is as interesting and many-colored as his thoughts about it are deep and meaningful. The writer devoted his life to searching for happiness: he wrote his books about happiness—and his life did not deceive him.
This is the first detailed biography of Prishvin, written by the writer and literary scholar Alexey Varlamov. The author shows his hero in all the complexity of his character and fate, removing the textbook gloss from the surprisingly vivid life of one of the greatest Russian thinkers of the 20th century.