Yordan RadichkovYordan RadichkovYordan RadichkovYordan RadichkovMina Petrova &Mina Petrova &

Laska DeliradevaLaska Deliradeva

“Human lives are sentences written with lots of love and inspiration but plenty of mistakes, and mine is no exception. However old and wise they are, people still make mistakes.”

Biography24.10.1929-21.01.2004

Yordan Radichkov was born in the village of Kalimanitsa, situated in the northwest of Bulgaria.

In 1947 he finished high school in the near town of Berkovitsa.

After an early bout of tuberculosis, he started out as a local news reporter in 1951, then worked as an editor for Narodna Mladezh [People's Youth], the official Young Communist newspaper (1952-55), and as a journalist on Vecherni Novini [Evening News] in Sofia (1955-59). He also contributed to several other newspapers, and Bulgarian Cinematography magazine.

“Journalism helps a lot, as it takes you to most incredible places. Until I became a journalist, I

haven’t seen the sea and I didn’t know what was it like.

Journalism introduces you to all kinds of people, to interesting people.”

Starting from 1959 till his late days he wrote around 30

collections of short stories and novellas, 4 plays, 2 novels, parables and children's books.

Most of his works are written before the collapse of communism in 1989. Some of them have been translated into more than 30 languages and have been published in 50 countries.

His dramatic works „January” (1974), „Lazaritsa”(1979)

and „Opit za letene”(A Try to Fly, 1979) along with „Sumatoha” (Bustle) have been performed in Austria, Yugoslavia, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Finland, Czech Republic, United States of America, Romania etc.

He also wrote the scripts for several Bulgarian movies: “Goreshto pladne” (“Hot noon”, 1966), “Privarzaniat balon” (“The Tied Balloon”, 1967) and the award-winning Posledno liato (The Last Summer, 1974), which is possibly his most psychologically dramatic work - a story of a man trying desperately to stay faithful to his own identity in a dynamically changing world.

He was nominated for the Noble prize for literature two times.Radichkov has been awarded a wide number of awards, both in Bulgaria and abroad. He is a winner of the prestigious Italian prize Grinzane Cavour 1984) for fiction and of the Swedish national Polar Star Award (1988). In 1996 “Malki zhabeshki istorii” (Little Frog’s Stories) won the Hans Christian Andersen award for children’s literature of the International council for books for children.

Work“A writer becomes a man who has

what to tell about” Although his earliest works were written in the socialist-realist

tradition, Radichkov soon adopted a new parabolic style. In the beginning the literary critics could not perceive his

innovative for that time style. For almost 30 years he was considered from an eccentric, an obscure writer to rare talent.

To talk about plot and composition in Radichkov’s writings is

not appropriate. The action is not constructed as a connection between cause and effect. His style of writing is very close to the oral folklore tradition and to the natural manner of speech.

“With all my heart, I’ve been struggling, to say so, to legalize

the vernacular speech of the peasants, and not only the way of speaking but the way people construct their stories too. All of this I do on purpose because it is closest to my heart.”

Radichkov doesn’t like to express himself directly. His prose is strange and grotesque, often on the verge of nonsencial.

A mixture of the fantastic and the real, Radichkov's works combined images of industrial civilisation with those of a remote mythical past, and were sometimes defined as a Balkan magic realism.

His works have two characteristic features: deep humanism and magic in everyday life. This magic is not coming from outside but is a part of the human nature. Radichkov finds the magic in the rural life. He believes that the contemporary world is incapable of stimulating our imagination because it is too full of belongings.

The remote province is one of his

favourite settings. Cherkaski, for example, that appears in his stories, is a half-real, half-imaginary Bulgarian village in the middle of nowhere. It is a result of the combination between the grotesque and the reality of that time.

Nature has a very special place in his works. Born and brought up in a village he developed a strong connection to it and became very familiar with it. He was able to recognize all kinds of birds, plants, trees.

Many of his stories are named after animals. For example: “Memories of horses”, “Goat’s beard”, “Little Frog’s stories”, “We, the sparrows”, etc.

Every character is unique - these are always the "small" people with their everyday problems. They live in a poor, but cosy home or they're blown by the winter wind. They're trying to fly on the wings of their imagination and feel that lifting above the earth is wonderful.

The characters are usually good-hearted and simple people, sometimes even losers, deaf-and-dumb, foolish villagers. Their moto is “dico, ergo sum” (I speak, so I am alive). Speech is a tool in every kind of situation – against boredom, anxiety, difficulty in understanding the world around.

Even though his characters are depicted with grotesque, Radichkov is not criticizing them but pulling them back to earth. Although foolish and sometimes ridiculous, they are compassionate to every other creature.“Humanism means to be able to recognize the pain”.

Radichkov as an illustrator

The writer used to illustrate by himself his magic world, not only in his children’s books but even in his works for adults.

He considered writing hard, emotionally and mentally exhausting and therefore he enjoyed drawing.

In his literary world, words turn

into drawings and drawings into words.

Dogs and foxes were the first illustrations he made. Later he started drawing frogs, dragons, centipedes.

We, the sparrows “We, the sparrows” is an

emblematic work of Radichkov, regarded as one of the best children’s books.

In Bulgarian schools it is obligatory for reading in second grade.

“We, the sparrows” is the only work entirely illustrated by the author himself.

Although it is generally considered as a children’s book, it contains the wisdom and the issues concerning the world of the adults.

The book is full of metaphors and idiomatique expressions adopted by human speech and turned into sparrows’ speech.

• The book tells about the adventures of a flock of young sparrows, who learn how to survive in the big world and how to cope with difficult situations.

• Each sparrow has its own identity and character, which is reflected in its name: My dear sir – a sulky sparrow constantly using the phrase ‘my dear sir’; His legs are always out – a sparrow with too long legs that stand out of the nest; Fatty, Little comma, etc.

• The provocative drawings in the text enables the transition from speech to icon and from pictogram to illustration.

• Words and drawings are interchangeable. The story fits in the drawing and the drawing - into the story, without repeating one another.

• The drawings are made with pen or pencil, on plain sheets of paper. The strokes are linear and simple, all images are black and white.

• There is a touch of humour in the drawings. Often they remind of caricatures and children’s scribbles.

In his works, either written or drawn Radichkov seems concerned to keep the childish flame alive. This is why we can feel the naivety when we read him or watch his drawings. But it is not a naivety coming from the lack of experience. On the contrary, it is a belief of a wise man who is convinced that the world should not be taken too seriously.

"...Now I'm watching the world with those same eyes through which I've seen it as little. That's why the world continues to seem mysterious, secretive, somehow unreal. Now I'm moving just like a little child in an unreal world. I'm not prepared for the world of the grown-ups, where the big games are played and everything is unforgiving and angular."