Yury Iosifovich Koval

Yury Iosifovich Koval
Born (1938-02-09)February 9, 1938
Moscow, Soviet Union
Died August 2, 1995(1995-08-02) (aged 57)
Moscow, Russia
Occupation Writer, screenwriter, poet, artist
Genre Children's literature
For other people named Koval, see Koval.

Yury Iosifovich Koval (Russian: Юрий Иосифович Коваль, February 9, 1938, Moscow – August 2, 1995, Moscow) was a Russian author, artist, and screenplay writer.[1]

Biography

Yury Koval was born in Moscow in 1938. Both of his parents came from peasant families. His Ukrainian father Iosif Yakovlevich Koval was a criminal investigator, while his mother Olga Dmitrievna Kolybina was a psychiatrist of Russian origin.[2] In 1955 Yuri begun his studies at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, and in 1960, he graduated and started working as a drawing teacher in the countryside in the Republic of Tatarstan. After a year, he returned to Moscow, working first as a schoolteacher and subsequently as an editor in the Detskaya Literatura magazine. In 1966, he became a freelance journalist and writer.[3]

Koval published sporadically since he was a student, and in 1967 and 1969 he published two books of verses for children, however, he was first noticed in 1968, when he published Aly, a short story of a dog. He subsequently decided to change topic frequently. He spent considerable periods of time in the north of European Russia, in particular, in Vologda Oblast. In Arkhangelsk, Yury Koval met Boris Shergin, a Russian Pomor writer, and became interested in Russian folklore. Later, he invested a lot of time promoting literary works of Shergin and Stepan Pisakhov, and even wrote a screenplay for animated films The Magic Ring (Russian: Волшебное кольцо) and Laughter and Grief by the White Sea, based on Shergin's fairy tales.[3]

In the 1970s, Koval wrote several short stories and novels for children. The Little Silver Fox (1975) shows the story of an Arctic fox who escaped from a fur farm and wanted to get to the North Pole. In 1984, he published The lightest boat in the world, and Suyer-Vyyer was published in 1996 posthumously. For Suyer-Vyyer, Koval received the Strannik Award, which is given for science fiction books.[4] Koval's books were translated to all major European languages, as well as to Chinese and Japanese.[3][5]

In addition to his writing and screenwriting work, Yuri was also a professional sculptor, artist, icon painter, enameller and woodcarver.[6][7] He mastered a wide range of techniques, mostly traditional national Russian styles. He also wrote songs and played guitar.

Koval died in 1995 at the age of 57 after a serious heart attack. He was buried in the family tomb at the Lianozovskoe Cemetery.[8] He was survived by his second wife Natalia Alexandrovna Koval (nee Degtyar), his children (Yulia from the first marriage and Alexei from the second marriage) and his elder brother Boris.[2] Koval belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church.[6]

Literary works

Koval is the author of several novels, novellas and collections of short stories and fairy-tales, both for children and adults. He has also written poems and songs. His major works in prose include:

He translated into Russian various children's writers and poets, including Rainis, Imants Ziedonis, Eduardas Mieželaitis, Spiridon Vangheli, Akhmedkhan Abu-Bakar, Michio Mado, Yoko Sano, etc.

English editions

Cinema and animation

Some of Koval's works were made into feature films:

He wrote the screenplays for several short animation films, and many animation films are based on his works, including:

Koval also appeared in small supporting roles in two movies (in both cases he sings his songs playing a guitar):

References

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