My Science School

Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time, Court Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, better known as Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828. His ideas on non-violence had a profound impact on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Early Life

Born on his family estate, Yasnaya Polyana in the Tula province of Russia, Tolstoy belonged to an affluent family. Unfortunately, he lost his parents at a young age and lived with different relatives over the years.

At 16, Tolstoy began studying law and Oriental languages at Kazan University, but since he was home-schooled, he struggled to cope. Frustrated, he dropped out of the university and started looking for a non-academic career.

Sowing the seeds

Intent on taking up farming, Tolstoy moved to the family’s estate and began managing serfs and farmhands. Though he enjoyed the toil, he had to give up farming as he wanted to return to Moscow, which he missed. On his brother’s insistence, he joined the Russian Army. Tolstoy fought in the Crimean War, between Russia, and Britain and France. The violence and bloodshed he witnessed during the war scared him for life. He left the Army as soon as the war ended.

A new religion

Seeking solace in religion, he tried to evolve his own views on religion wherein he rejected the authority of the church and promoted ahimsa or non-violence. He believed in leading a morally and physically ascetic life. His followers moved onto the author’s estate to be near him and came to be known as Tolstayans. Many of these communes are operational even today.

Among those influenced by Tolstoy’s social beliefs were Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi established a cooperative colony named after Tolstoy in South Africa and corresponded with the author, crediting him with his own spiritual and philosophical evolution, particularly with regard to Tolstoy’s teachings on peaceful non-resistance to evil.

Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910, a few months after a few months after embarking on a pilgrimage with his daughter.

About war and peace

Written by the author over a period of six years, War and Peace cemented Tolstoy’s position as one of the greatest writers in the world. While it is a tale about the French invasion of Russia and its impact on everyday lives, it also perfectly captures the ethos of the time we live in today.

Oh Really?

• A Bombay High Court Judge asked an accused civil activist to explain why he had a copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace at home. The comment has drawn criticism from people across the world.


• Tolstoy maintained a journal throughout his life in which he kept a detailed record of all his activities. In the diary, he jotted down a list of rules he aspired to live by. This included sleeping by 10 p.m. and with no more than a two-hour nap in the afternoon; eating moderately and avoiding sweets.


• Tolstoy’s wife helped him in finishing War and Peace on time. After completing the first draft in 1865, Tolstoy kept revising it over and over again. His wife, Sophia, patiently wrote out each version by hand – sometimes she even used a magnifying glass to decipher his scribbles. Over the next seven years, she rewrote the complete manuscript at least eight times.


• While fighting in the Army, Tolstoy wrote Childhood, an autobiographical novel, followed by Boyhood and Youth. His other works include Anna Karenina, Resurrection, Family Happiness and The Death of Ivan Illyich.  

 

Picture Credit : Google

Few books have captured the imagination of generations of readers like Little Women, the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott. Over the years, the book has been adapted, to the silver screen several times, including the 1994 remake starring Winona Ryder as the heroine Jo March. Now 25 years later, director Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which released on December 25, once again welcomes audiences into the warm, loving and chaotic home of the March family. But how much do you know about Alcott, who defied stereotypes and conventions to become one of the foremost women writers of her time?

Early life

Born in Pennsylvania, United States, Alcott’s family closely resembled the March sisters you come across in Little Women. The family struggled with poverty, forcing Alcott and her three sisters to work as governesses, domestic servants and teachers to earn money. Some of her employers even mistreated her.

Alcott learned about women’s rights and equality, thanks to her parents, Bronson and Abigail Alcott. They were friends with Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass and Julia Ward Howe, who ended up creating on a young Alcott.

Her family operated an Underground Railroad, a network of people offering shelter and aid to slaves escaping from the South. Alcott helped them hide a fugitive slave for nearly a week. These experiences shaped her character and taught her to be open-minded.

Finding her voice

Alcott championed for universal suffrage. She wrote on women’s rights and went door to door in Massachusetts to encourage women to vote. When the state passed a law allowing women to vote in local elections she was the first one to get herself registered as a voter. Overcoming resistance, she, along with 19 women, cast their ballots. The Nineteenth Amendment was finally ratified in the U.S. Constitution decades after her death.

Writing became an outlet for Alcott to voice her thoughts and experiences. One of her poems was published in a women’s magazine when she was 19. This gave her confidence to write more, especially edge-of-the-seat thrillers, which were written largely by men.

Adopting the pseudonym A.M. Barnard, she penned some racy pulp fiction about spies and revenge.

Alcott started writing a story about adolescent girls at the behest of her publisher Thomas Niles. When he asked Alcott to write a “girls” story, she had her doubts of its success. After all, it was a time when women were expected only to marry and take care of the household. She was not sure how the public would respond to a talented and independent heroine like Jo March. Her scepticism proved unfounded as Little Women turned out to be a smash hit.

Drawn from her own experiences, Little Women went on to become so popular that fans flooded her with letters, demanding sequels. Despite becoming a bestselling author, Alcott enlisted as an army nurse when the Civil War broke out. Putting on a brave face, she comforted dying soldiers and helped doctors perform amputations. She later wrote about her stressful but meaningful experience in Hospital Sketches.

Mercury poisoning

While working as a nurse, she contracted typhoid fever and was treated with a compound containing mercury. Though she recovered at the time, she continued to be chronically ill for the rest of her life due to exposure to mercury. At 51, she died of a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888. She is buried next to her childhood companions Thoreau, Emerson and Hawthorne.

 

Picture Credit : Google