The path of the writer Yuri Koval in literature was florid. He took his first steps in this field with prose for adults. However, he gained popularity thanks to children's stories, which he began to write quite by accident.
Biography: childhood and adolescence
Yuri Iosifovich Koval was born in a difficult pre-war time, on February 9, 1938. The family lived in Moscow. His mother worked as a psychiatrist, and his father worked in the police, in the criminal investigation department. His childhood years fell on the war. Cold and hunger of that period caused irreparable harm to health: Koval suffered from chronic tuberculosis of the bones.
The love of books and writing was instilled in young Yuri by his school teacher of literature, Vladimir Protopopov. Later he will write about him in his autobiographical story "From the Red Gate". Protopopov was already able to discern a talented person in Koval. To develop his abilities, he forced the future writer to write poetry. In high school, Koval and his friends even created something like a secret union of writers.
After school, Yuri becomes a student at a pedagogical institute. On a parallel course, Yuli Kim and Yuri Vizbor studied with him, who later became famous bards, as well as the future theater director Pyotr Fomenko. In his student years, Koval was a joker and the soul of the company. He was fond of not only literature, but also sports. Koval enjoyed playing table tennis, sang songs with a guitar, went on long hikes.
During his years of study at the pedagogical institute, Yuri wrote quite a few stories. They are eagerly published in the institute newspaper. However, Koval himself does not like them. Then he decided to switch to another old hobby of his - painting. Koval completed a course in fine arts at the institute. After gaining the right to teach drawing, he began to prepare himself for a career as an artist.
Creative activity
After graduating from the institute, Koval worked for a year in one of the rural schools of Tatarstan (now Tatarstan). Returning to Moscow, he brought not only stories for adults, but also a series of oil paintings. He did not dare to publish the stories, but the paintings were put up for the audience to judge. They were highly appreciated by his fellow artists.
After returning from Tataria, Koval got a job as a teacher in a school for working youth. In parallel, he worked as a literary officer for the then new magazine "Children's Literature". At that time, he periodically posted on its pages his stories, written jointly with fellow student Leonid Mezinov. Friends published their work under the pseudonym Fim and Am Kurilkin.
Since 1966, he begins to write alone. Koval's first children's book was published in 1967 - "Station Los". Soon the second came out - "Elephants on the Moon".
In 1968, Yuri went on a business trip to the border post on the instructions of the Murzilka children's magazine. He was to write poetry about the border. He returned to Moscow with the story "Scarlet". It was he who brought him his first resounding success.
In 1971, Yuri published another landmark work - the parody detective The Adventures of Vasya Kurolesov. He took the heroes and the plot from the stories of his father, who worked in the police. A year later, the story was recognized as the best children's book at the All-Union competition.
In 1974, Koval published a collection called "Cap with Crucian Carp". A year later, he publishes the story "Nedopesok", which tells about the adventures of a young Arctic fox who escaped from a cage. Subsequently, a film was shot on it.
Yuri Koval translated books by foreign children's writers into Russian. He also acted in films and acted as a screenwriter for films for children.
Koval's last work was the story "Suer-Vyir". It was released after his death. The writer himself passed away on August 2, 1995.
