Bunin, Ivan

The Russian author Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin was born to an old, noble family in Voronezh province. Having owned many serfs, the family had fallen on hard times due to his father’s gambling and drinking. After being expelled from school in 1886, Bunin was taught at home by his brother, who had served a jail sentence on account of his revolutionary activities. Ivan Bunin wrote prolifically. He submitted poems to magazines and worked as a journalist, librarian and civil servant in Charkov and Poltava over the next few years.