Daniil Kharms

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Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev (Даниил Иванович Ювачёв) was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a well known member of the revolutionary group, The People's Will. By this time the elder Yuvachev had already been imprisoned for his involvement in subversive acts against the tsar Alexander III and had become a religious philosopher, acquaintance of Anton Chekhov during the latter's trip to Sakhalin.

Daniil invented the pseudonym Kharms while attending high school at the prestigious German "Peterschule". While at the Peterschule, he learned the rudiments of both English and German, and it may have been the English "harm" and "charm" that he incorporated into "Kharms". Throughout his career Kharms used variations on his name and...more Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev (Даниил Иванович Ювачёв) was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a well known member of the revolutionary group, The People's Will. By this time the elder Yuvachev had already been imprisoned for his involvement in subversive acts against the tsar Alexander III and had become a religious philosopher, acquaintance of Anton Chekhov during the latter's trip to Sakhalin.

Daniil invented the pseudonym Kharms while attending high school at the prestigious German "Peterschule". While at the Peterschule, he learned the rudiments of both English and German, and it may have been the English "harm" and "charm" that he incorporated into "Kharms". Throughout his career Kharms used variations on his name and the pseudonyms DanDan, Khorms, Charms, Shardam, and Kharms-Shardam, among others. It is rumored that he scribbled the name Kharms directly into his passport.

In 1924, he entered the Leningrad Electrotechnicum, from which he was expelled for "lack of activity in social activities". After his expulsion, he gave himself over entirely to literature. He joined the circle of Aleksandr Tufanov, a sound-poet, and follower of Velemir Khlebnikov's ideas of zaum (or trans-sense) poetry. He met the young poet Alexander Vvedensky at this time, and the two became close friends and inseparable collaborators.

In 1927, the Association of Writers of Children's Literature was formed, and Kharms was invited to be a member. From 1928 until 1941, Kharms continually produced children's works and had a great success.

In 1928, Daniil Kharms founded the avant-garde collective OBERIU, or Union of Real Art. He embraced the new movements of Russian Futurism laid out by his idols, Khlebnikov, Kazimir Malevich, and Igor Terentiev, among others. Their ideas served as a springboard. His aesthetic centered around a belief in the autonomy of art from real world rules and logic, and the intrinsic meaning to be found in objects and words outside of their practical function.

By the late 1920s, his antirational verse, nonlinear theatrical performances, and public displays of decadent and illogical behavior earned Kharms — who always dressed like an English dandy with a calabash pipe — the reputation of being a talented but highly eccentric “fool” or “crazy-man” in Leningrad cultural circles.

Even then, in the late 20s, despite rising criticism of the OBERIU performances and diatribes against the avant-garde in the press, Kharms nurtured a fantasy of uniting the progressive artists and writers of the time (Malevich, Filonov, Terentiev, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Kaverin, Zamyatin) with leading Russian Formalist critics (Tynianov, Shklovsky, Eikhenbaum, Ginzburg, etc.,) and a younger generation of writers (all from the OBERIU crowd—Alexander Vvedensky, Konstantin Vaginov, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Igor Bakhterev), to form a cohesive cultural movement of Left Art. Needless to say it didn't happen that way.

Kharms was arrested in 1931 together with Vvedensky, Tufanov and some other writers, and was in exile from his hometown (forced to live in the city of Kursk) for most of a year. He was arrested as a member of "a group of anti-Soviet children's writers", and some of his works were used as an evidence. Soviet authorities, having become increasingly hostile toward the avant-garde in general, deemed Kharms’ writing for children anti-Soviet because of its absurd logic and its refusal to instill materialist and social Soviet values.

He continued to write for children's magazines when he returned from exile, though his name would appear in the credits less often. His plans for more performances and plays were curtailed, the OBERIU disbanded, and Kharms receded into a very private writing life. He wrote for the desk drawer, for his wife, Marina Malich, and for a small group of friends, the “(less)

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Books by Daniil Kharms

Average rating: 4.48 · 675 ratings · 59 reviews · 55 distinct works

	Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich (Goodreads Author) 4.42 avg rating — 290 ratings — published 2007 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Incidences by Daniil Kharms, Andrew Bromfield (Translation) 4.39 avg rating — 227 ratings — 9 editions	My rating:
	The Man with the Black Coat: Russia's Literature of the Absurd by Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky, George Gibian 4.49 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1997	My rating:
	It Happened Like This 4.56 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1998	My rating:
	Собрание сочинений в 3 томах 4.90 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2000 — 2 editions	My rating:
	First, Second by Daniil Kharms, Richard Pevear 4.36 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 1996	My rating:
	Russia's Lost Literature of the Absurd: A Literary Discovery: Selected Works of Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky by Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky, George Gibian 4.69 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1971	My rating:
	Kharms: The Old Woman (Bristol Russian Texts Series) by Daniil Kharms, R. Aizlewood (Editor) 4.69 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1995	My rating:
	Disastri by Daniil Kharms, Paolo Nori (Editor) 4.09 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2011	My rating:
	Полет в небеса: стихи, проза, драмы, письма 5.00 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1988	My rating:

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Quotes by Daniil Kharms

“I was most happy when pen and paper were taken from me and I was forbidden from doing anything. I had no anxiety about doing nothing by my own fault, my conscience was clear, and I was happy. This was when I was in prison.”
― Daniil Kharms, Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings

tags: laziness , prison

14 people liked it

“Is there anything on earth which would have meaning
and would even change the course of events not only on
earth, but in other worlds?” I asked my teacher.
“There is,” my teacher answered me.
“Well, what is it?” I asked.
“It’s...” began my teacher and suddenly fell silent.
I stood and waited intently for his answer. But he was
silent.
And I stood and was silent.
And he was silent.
And I stood, silent.
And he was silent.
We’re both standing and silent.
Ho-la-la!
We’re both standing and silent.
Ho-le-le!
Yes, yes, we’re both standing and silent!
16-17 July 1937”
― Daniil Kharms

5 people liked it

“One must write poetry in such as way that if one threw the poem in a window, the pane would break.”
― Daniil Kharms

3 people liked it

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Italia: I libri più belli che avete letto nel 2011	42	86	Jan 08, 2012 11:51am
Indian Readers: Next book I'd like to read	267	286	Apr 14, 2012 10:22am
Goodreads Italia: Richieste di Unione Libri	106	117	4 hours, 39 min ago

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