GORKY, MAKSIM

born March 16 [March 28, New Style], 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia died June 14, 1936 also spelled Maxim Gorki, pseudonym of Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov Russian short-story writer and novelist who first attracted attention with his naturalistic and sympathetic stories of tramps and social outcasts and later wrote other stories, novels, and plays, including his famous The Lower Depths. Additional reading Works of mainly biography are Dan Levin, Stormy Petrel: The Life and Work of Maxim Gorky (1965, reissued 1986), a generally well-researched and sensitive account; Gerhard Habermann, Maksim Gorki (1971), a short popular work; and Henri Troyat, Gorky (1989). Critical studies are F.M. Borras, Maxim Gorky the Writer (1967), a generally sound critical interpretation, though the material is rather weakly organized; Nina Gourfinkel, Gorky (1960, reprinted 1975), a short, fragmentary work, though with some valuable insights; Richard Hare, Maxim Gorky, Romantic Realist and Conservative Revolutionary (1962, reprinted 1978), marred by some rather unbalanced critical attitudes and a general sense of authorial antipathy toward his subject; Alexander Kaun, Maxim Gorky and His Russia (1931, reprinted 1968), a fascinating and sensitive account of Gorky and his career by an American who knew him; Irwin Weil, Gorky (1966), a good account of Gorky's outstanding features as a writer and an extremely interesting, if somewhat speculative, attempt to trace his influence on the general development of Soviet literature as well as individual Soviet writers; Bertram D. Wolfe, The Bridge and the Abyss: The Troubled Friendship of Maxim Gorky and V.I. Lenin (1967, reprinted 1983), a fascinating account of a complex relationship that revealed vital aspects of personality in both men; and Barry P. Scherr, Maxim Gorky (1988), which includes a short biography. Bibliographies on Gorky's life and work and on Gorky criticism include Boriss A. Kaleps (comp.), Maxim Gorky (1868-1936): A Bibliography of Publications from and on Gorky in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latvian Languages (1963); and Edith W. Clowes, Maksim Gorky: A Reference Guide (1987).