Dimitar Dimov

Dimitar Dimow (also written Dimitar Dimov , Bulgarian Димитър Димов ; born June 25, 1909 in Lovech , Kingdom of Bulgaria , † April 1, 1966 in Bucharest , Romania ) was a Bulgarian writer who was related to the revolutionary and freedom fighter Jane Sandanski . He wrote novels about Bulgarian society and plays.

life and work

Dimitar Dimow was born in Lovech in 1909. His father, an officer, died in the Second Balkan War, his stepfather, also an officer, was an expert on tobacco. The writer's mother had a marked interest in literature. His maternal grandfather's sister was the mother of freedom fighter and revolutionary Jane Sandanski.

At the age of 10, Dimow left school in Dupnitza; In 1928 he graduated from the 1st boys' grammar school in Sofia . 1934 Graduated from Sofia University with a doctorate in veterinary medicine, in between he spent a semester at the law faculty. Until 1939 he worked in the province as a veterinarian and as a microbiologist in the office of veterinary biology in Burgas .

From 1939 to 1946 he worked as an assistant in anatomy at the Veterinary Faculty of Sofia University; During this time he also spent 15 months at the University of Madrid in Spain, during which he specialized in the histology of the nervous system. From 1946 to 1949 he lectured at the agricultural faculty in Plovdiv , from 1949 to 1952 at the agricultural academy. From 1953 he was professor of anatomy, embryology and histology of vertebrates in Sofia. He wrote over 20 specialist articles.

Dimitar Dimov was President of the Union of Bulgarian Writers from March 21, 1964 until his death . Since 1942 publication of stories, travelogues, extracts from novels and dramas in various newspapers. His works show him above all as a master of the psychological and social novel. As a writer with pronounced democratic positions, Dimov shaped Bulgarian literature with a modern, artistic style thanks to his linguistic wealth.

Dimov's grave

His first novel "Oberleutnant Benz", begun in 1933, was published in 1938. 1939 Beginning of a new novel, which was published in a magazine in 1967 as "Novel without a heading"; the text is considered to be the forerunner of the novel "Tobacco". 1945, after his stay in Spain, completion of the novel “Damned Souls”. The novel developed its subject of intrigue in the environment of the Jesuit order at the time of the Spanish Civil War and became very popular.

In 1955, three years after the first version was completed, the third and final version of the novel “Tobacco” was published. The novel not only became one of the most widely read novels in Bulgarian literature, but also a stumbling block for criticism of Marxism in Bulgaria. In a three-day meeting of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in 1952 it was decided that the novel needed revision.

The novel “Achilles Heel”, begun in 1958, is among the unfinished works of the writer. Dimitar Dimov is considered one of the most talented and most widely read Bulgarian writers. He died in 1966.

Dimow was the winner of the Dimitrov Prize .

Novels (selection)

• Поручик Бенц. 1938.
  • Translation: Lieutenant Benz. Translated by Dorothea Kollenbach. Kirsch, Cologne 2014.
• Осъдени души. 1945.
  • Translation: Damned souls. Translated by Erika Moskowa. People and World, Berlin 1971.
• Тютюн. 1951.
  • Translation: Tobacco. Translated by Josef Klein. People and the world, Berlin 1957.

bibliography

Д. Веселинов. Френската лексика в романа "Тютюн" [Le lexique français dans le roman "Le tabac"]. София, 2009, 304 с.

literature

• Dimow, Dimityr Todorow . In: Taschenlexikon Bulgaria , Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1983, page 56.

Web links

• Literature by and about Dimitar Dimow in the catalog of the German National Library