SLAVEYKOV, PETKO RACHEV; AND SLAVEYKOV, PENCHO PETKOV

born Nov. 17, 1827, Turnovo, Bulg. died July 1, 1895, Sofia born April 27, 1866, Tryavna, Bulg. died May 28, 1912, Brunate, Italy father and son, both writers, who helped to enrich Bulgarian literature by establishing a modern literary language and introducing contemporary ideas from other European countries. Petko Rachev Slaveykov became an itinerant schoolteacher at 17. His early poems were lyrical and patriotic (Smesena Kitka, Pesnopoyka, both 1852), and, by reestablishing the vernacular as a medium for literature (the language of his translation of the Bible in 1862 was based on Bulgarian dialects), he prepared for the flowering of native poetry. As a patriot and politician he helped to shape resurgent Bulgaria, producing political pamphlets notorious for their outspokenness against Turkish oppression and against the spiritual domination of the Greek patriarchate. In 1863 he moved to Istanbul, where he contributed to Bulgarian migr reviews and edited satirical and political periodicals. After his country's liberation (1878), he became an active politician, both as president of the constituent assembly and as cofounder of the Democratic Party. After the 1881 coup d'tat he went to Plovdiv, then still under Turkish rule, and there edited the newspaper Nezavisimost (Independence). Pencho Slaveykov, who was inspired especially by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as by the simple eloquence and realism of Bulgarian folk songs, is best known for his unfinished epic poem Kurvava Pesen (Song of Blood; written 191112; published 1913), which describes the sacrifices of the Bulgarian people in their struggle for independence. He was also an outstanding essayist and translator of German literature.