Description
By the celebrated author of A Dream in Polar Fog, a collection of the myths and stories of Yuri Rytkheu’s own family that is at once a moving history of the Chukchi people who inhabit the northern shores of the Bering Sea and a beautiful cautionary tale rife with conflict, human drama, and humor. We meet fantastic characters: Nau, the mother of the human race; Rau, her half-whale husband; and Rytkheu’s own grandfather, fated to be an intrepid traveler, far-ranging whaler, living ethnographic exhibit, and the last shaman of Uelen. The Chukchi Bible moves through vast Arctic tundra, sea, and sky – and to places deep within ourselves—introducing readers, in vivid prose, to an extraordinary mythology and a resilient people.
About the Author
In Cyrillic:Юрий РытхэуYuri Sergeyevich Rytkheu. He was a Chukchi writer, who wrote in both his native Chukchi and in Russian. He is considered to be the father of Chukchi literature.Yuri Rytkheu was born on March 8, 1930 in the village of Uelen in the Far Eastern Territory (now the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) in the family of a hunter-St. John's wort. His grandfather was a shaman. At birth, the boy was given the name Rytkheu, which means "unknown" in Chukchi. Since the Soviet institutions did not recognize the Chukchi names, in the future, in order to obtain a passport, the future writer took a Russian name and patronymic, and the name "Rytkheu" became his last name.Rytkheu graduated from a seven-year school in Uelen and wanted to continue his studies at the Institute of the Peoples of the North, but due to his age he was not among those who were seconded to this university. Therefore, he decided to independently go to Leningrad for training. This path stretched over several years. In order to earn money for travel and life, the future writer was hired for various jobs: he was a sailor, worked on a geological expedition, participated in the hunting game, was a loader at a hydro base.Rytkheu studied at the literary faculty of Leningrad State University from 1949 to 1954. The writer was a little over 20 years old when his stories appeared in the almanac "Young Leningrad", and a little later in the magazines "Ogonyok", "Young World", "Far East", the youth newspaper "Smena" and other periodicals. In 1953, the publishing house "Young Guard" published his first collection of short stories in Russian "People of Our Coast" (translated from Chukotka by A. Smolyan). During his student days, Yuri Rytkheu was actively involved in translation activities, translated into Chukchi the tales of Alexander Pushkin, the stories of Leo Tolstoy, the works of Maxim Gorky and Tikhon Syomushkin. In 1954 Rytkheu was admitted to the Writers' Union of the USSR. Two years later, in Magadan, his collection of stories "The Chukotka Saga" was published, which brought the writer recognition not only of Soviet, but also foreign readers.
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