Editing Ivan Bunin (section)

=== Literary career ===
[[File:Ivan Bunin 1891.jpg|thumb|upright|Bunin in 1891]] 
In May 1887 Bunin published his first<ref name=brit/> poem "Village Paupers" (Деревенские нищие) in the [[Saint Petersburg]] literary magazine ''Rodina'' (Motherland). In 1891 his first short story "Country Sketch (Деревенский эскиз) appeared in the [[Nikolay Mikhaylovsky]]-edited journal ''[[Russkoye Bogatstvo]]''.<ref name="kirjasto">{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibunin.htm |title=Ivan Bunin |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050828233743/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibunin.htm |archive-date=28 August 2005 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In Spring 1889, Bunin followed his brother to [[Kharkiv]], where he became a government clerk, then an assistant editor of a local paper, librarian, and court statistician. In January 1889 he moved to [[Oryol]] to work on the local ''Orlovsky Vestnik'' newspaper, first as an editorial assistant and later as de facto editor; this enabled him to publish his short stories, poems and reviews in the paper's literary section.<ref name="heywood" /> There he met Varvara Pashchenko and fell passionately in love with her. In August 1892 the couple moved to [[Poltava]] and settled in the home of Yuly Bunin. The latter helped his younger brother to find a job in the local [[zemstvo]] administration.<ref name="noblit_ru" />

Ivan Bunin's debut book of poetry ''Poems. 1887–1891'' was published in 1891 in Oryol.<ref name="chronology">{{cite web | url =http://bunin.niv.ru/bunin/bio/hronologiya-zhizni.htm| title = Ivan Bunin Chronology| publisher = bunin.niv.ru| language=ru | access-date = 1 January 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121011231442/http://bunin.niv.ru/bunin/bio/hronologiya-zhizni.htm| archive-date = 11 October 2012}}</ref> Some of his articles, essays and short stories, published earlier in local papers, began to feature in the Saint Petersburg periodicals.<ref name="chronology" />

Bunin spent the first half of 1894 travelling all over [[Ukraine]]. "Those were the times when I fell in love with Malorossiya (Little Russia), its villages and [[steppes]], was eagerly meeting its people and listening to Ukrainian songs, this country's very soul," he later wrote.<ref name="bio_1" />

In 1895 Bunin visited the Russian capital for the first time. There he was to meet the Narodniks Nikolay Mikhaylovsky and [[Sergey Krivenko]], [[Anton Chekhov]] (with whom he began a correspondence and became close friends), [[Alexander Ertel]], and the poets [[Konstantin Balmont]] and [[Valery Bryusov]].<ref name="chronology" /> [[File:Yuli and Ivan Bunins.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ivan Bunin with his brother Yuly]] 1899 saw the beginning of Bunin's friendship with [[Maxim Gorky]], to whom he dedicated his ''Falling Leaves'' (1901) collection of poetry and whom he later visited at [[Capri]]. Bunin became involved with Gorky's [[Znanie (publishing company)|Znanie]] (Knowledge) group. Another influence and inspiration was [[Leo Tolstoy]] whom he met in Moscow in January 1894. Admittedly infatuated with the latter's prose, Bunin tried desperately to follow the great man's lifestyle too, visiting sectarian settlements and doing a lot of hard work. He was even sentenced to three months in prison for illegally distributing Tolstoyan literature in the autumn of 1894, but avoided jail due to a general amnesty proclaimed on the occasion of the succession to the throne of [[Nicholas II]].<ref name="heywood" /><ref name="muromtseva">{{cite web| url = http://www.history.vuzlib.net/book_o007_page_7.html| title = Life of I.A. Bunin. Chapter 3.| publisher = www.history.vuzlib.net| access-date = 1 January 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120301193835/http://www.history.vuzlib.net/book_o007_page_7.html| archive-date = 1 March 2012| url-status = dead}}</ref> Tellingly, it was Tolstoy himself who discouraged Bunin from slipping into what he called "total peasantification."<ref name="bio_1">{{cite web| url = http://bunin.niv.ru/bunin/bio/biografiya-1.htm | title =  Ivan Alekseevich Bunin | publisher  = bunin.niv.ru |language=ru | access-date = 1 January 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121011231442/http://bunin.niv.ru/bunin/bio/biografiya-1.htm | archive-date = 11 October 2012 }}</ref> Several years later, while still admiring Tolstoy's prose, Bunin changed his views regarding his philosophy which he now saw as [[utopia]]n.<ref name="bio_2">{{cite web | url = http://noblit.ru/content/category/4/56/33/| title =  Ivan Bunin biography | publisher = noblit.ru |language=ru | access-date = 1 January 2011}}</ref>

In 1895–1896 Bunin divided his time between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1897 his first short story collection ''To the Edge of the World and Other Stories'' came out,<ref name="noblit_ru" /> followed a year later by ''In the Open Air'' (Под открытым небом, 1898), his second book of verse.<ref name="chronology" /> In June 1898 Bunin moved to [[Odessa]]. Here he became close to the Southern Russia Painters Comradeship, became friends with Yevgeny Bukovetski and [[Pyotr Nilus]].<ref name="bio_1" /> In the winter of 1899–1900 he began attending the [[Sreda (literary group)|Sreda]] (Wednesday) literary group in Moscow, striking up a friendship with the [[Nikolay Teleshov]], among others. Here the young writer made himself a reputation as an uncompromising advocate of the realistic traditions of classic Russian literature. "Bunin made everybody uncomfortable. Having got this severe and sharp eye for real art, feeling acutely the power of a word, he was full of hatred towards every kind of artistic excess. In times when (quoting [[Andrey Bely]]) "throwing pineapples to the sky" was the order of the day, Bunin's very presence made words stick in people's throats," [[Boris Zaytsev (writer)|Boris Zaitsev]] later remembered.<ref name="IX_commentary">{{cite book |title=Commentary from The Complete Collected Works of Ivan Bunin, Vol 9 |year=1915 |pages=553–569 }}</ref> He met Anton Chekov in 1896, and a strong friendship ensued.<ref name="heywood" />