Bunin, Ivan, << BOO nyihn, ih VAHN >> (1870-1953), was the first Russian to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. He won the award in 1933. Bunin began his career as a poet and translator of verse, but became famous for his short stories and novels. “The Gentleman from San Francisco” (1915) is his best-known story. The novel The Village (1909-1910), Bunin’s first international success, is a grim tale about the misery of Russian village life during the early 1900’s. The Well of Days (1930) is a fictionalized autobiography. Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin was born on Oct. 22, 1870, in Voronezh. He immigrated to France in 1919 and lived there until he died, on Nov. 8, 1953.
