Vahan Totovents

Vahan Hovhannesi Totovents (Armenian: Վահան Հովհաննեսի Թոթովենց; September 1, 1889 - July 18, 1938)[1] was an Armenian writer, poet and public activist.

Biography
Totovents lived in this house in Yerevan in 1934-1936

Vahan Totovents was born on July 17, 1893 in the town of Mezre (now Elâzığ) in the vilayet of Kharberd. He lived around Armenia and Istanbul, and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During World War I, he served as a secretary to Andranik Ozanian.

He repatriated to Soviet Armenia after 1922. Totovents was arrested in 1936 and executed in 1938 during the Great Purge.[2]

Works

Totovents published his first work in 1907. His notable works include the novels, stories and dramas Doctor Burbonian (1918), Death Battalion (1923), New York (1927), Baku (v. 1-3, 1930–34), Jonathan, and Son of Jeremiah. His collection of autobiographical short stories Life on the Old Roman Road, which "reflect[s] the society, culture, and mores not only of the Armenians of his childhood but also of their neighbors in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire" was particularly influential on Armenian literature.[3] The famous Armenian film A Piece of Sky (1980) by Henrik Malian is based on Totovents's short story "Light-Blue Flowers".

His works have been translated into Russian, English, French, Bulgarian and Turkish.

Books

In English
  • Scenes from an Armenian Childhood, 1962, NY: Oxford University Press, 182 p.,
  • Tell Me, Bella (a Selection of Stories), 1972, 127 p., ISBN 0-903039-06-0,
  • Jonathan, Son of Jeremiah (Mashtots paperbacks), 1985, 68 p., ISBN 0-903039-16-8,
  • Pigeon Fancier, 1994, 66 p., ISBN 0-903039-18-4.

In French
  • Une enfance arménienne, Julliard, 1985, 194 p., ISBN 2-260-00401-6.

References
  1. "Vahan Totovents - Writers.am".
  2. "Сталинские списки". stalin.memo.ru (in Russian).
  3. "A World of Books 2002: International Multicuturalism". www.loc.gov.
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