RADICHKOV, Yordan Dimitrov 1929-

PERSONAL: Born October 6, 1929, in Kalimanitsa, Mikhaylovgrad, Bulgaria; son of Dimiter Traykov Radichkov (a farmer and mason) and Mladena Vasileva Filipova (a midwife and farmer); married Suzi Markova Garti; children: Dumiter, Roza. Education: Attended high school in Berkovitsa, Bulgaria.

CAREER: Narodna mladezh (title means "National Youth"), newspaper correspondent, 1951, editor, 1952-55; Vecherni novini (title means "Evening News"), editor, 1955-59; Bulgarian Cinematography Company, scenario board, 1959-62; Literaturen front (title means "Literary Front"), writer, beginning 1950s, editor, 1962-69. Adviser to Council on Cultural Treasures, 1971.

MEMBER: Union of Bulgarian Writers, from 1962 (deputy chairman, 1986-90).

AWARDS, HONORS: Honored cultural worker, 1974; Grinzane Cavur, international prize for literature; silver plate award, Cinema Internacionale, and Prize for contemporary cinematographic expression, Festival of Bulgarian Films in Varna, both for Goreshto pladne; International Movie Festival, Atlanta, Georgia, 1974, best foreign director; International Movie Festival, San Remo, Italy, gold medal for best actor; Special Prize of the Jury, International Festival in Toulon, France, 1975, for Posledno lyato.

WRITINGS:

Gorda Stara planina (title means "The Proud Balkan Range"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1956.

Sértseto bie za khorata: Sotochinski razkazi (title means "The Heart Beats for the People: Stories from Sotochino"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1959.

Prosti rétse: Razkazi (title means "Simple Hands"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1961.

Obérnato nebe: Razkazi (title means "The Sky Upside Down"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1962.

Planinsko tsvete: Razkazi (title means "A Mountain Flower"), Profizdat (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1964.

Sharena cherga: Razkazi za detsa (title means "A Multicolored Rug"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1964, enlarged edition, Otechestvo (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1987.

Goreshto pladne Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1965, translated by Peter Tempest as Hot Noon, Sofia Press (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1973.

Svirepo nastroenie (title means "Violent Mood"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1965.

Neosvetenite dvorove: Pétepis za Sibir (title means "Unlit Courtyards"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1966.

Vodoley (title means "Aquarius"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1967.

Kozyata brada: Noveli (title means "Goat's Beard"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1967.

Vyatérét na spokoystvieto: Noveli (title means "The Wind of Calm"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1968.

Nie, vrabchetata (title means "We, the Sparrows"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1968.

Baruten bukvar (title means "The Gunpowder ABC Book"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1969.

Kozheniyat pépesh (title means "The Leather Melon"), Khristo G. Danov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), 1969.

Skalni risunki: Noveli (title means "Rock Drawings"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1970.

Choveshka proza (title means "Human Prose"), Khristo G. Danov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), 1971.

Plyava i zérno (title means "Chaff and Grain"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1972.

Yanuari: Zimna poema (title means "January: A Winter Poem"), 1973.

Kak taka? (title means "How Come?"), G. Bakalov (Varna, Bulgaria), 1974.

Malko otechestvo (title means "Small Fatherland"), Dérzhavno voenno izdatelstvo (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1974.

Vsichki i nikoy: Roman (title means "Everybody and No One"), Otechestven front (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1975.

Spomeni za kone: Noveli (title means "Memories about Horses"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1975.

Shest malki matryoshki i edna golyama: Noveli (title means "Six Small Matryoshkas and a Big One"), G. Bakalov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), 1977.

Lazaritsa: Piesa v 4 sezona (title means "Lazarus Treed: A Play in Four Seasons"), translated by E. J. Czerwinski as Lazarus Treed, in Slavic and East European Arts, 5, summer, 1987.

Sumatokha. Yanuari. Lazaritsa: Piesi (title means "Commotion"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1978.

Prashka: Roman (title means "Sling"), Khristo G. Danov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), 1979.

Luda treva (title means "Wild Grass"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1980.

Malka severna saga (title means "A Small Northern Saga"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1980.

Pedya zemya (title means "A Span of Land"), Profizdat (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1980.

Opit za letene: Piesi (title means "Attempt to Fly"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1982.

Nezhnata spirala (title means "The Tender Spiral"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1983.

Po vodata: Noveli (title means "On the Water"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1983.

Verblyud: Razkazi i noveli, G. Bakalov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), 1984.

Izpadnali ot karutsata na boga (title means "Things That Have Fallen off God's Cart"), BZNS (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1984.

Skakalets (title means "Grasshopper"), Profizdat (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1984.

Koshnitsi: Piesa (title means "Baskets"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1985.

Skandinavtsite: Razkazi (title means "Scandinavians"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1985.

Tenekienoto petle: Noveli (title means "The Little Tin Rooster"), Partizdat (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1985.

Noev kovcheg: Roman (title means "Noah's Ark"), Bélgarski pisatel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1988.

Khora i svraki (title means "People and Magpies"), Narodna mladezh (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1990.

Svirepo nastroenie, Khristo Botev (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1992.

Malki zhabeshki istorii, Khemus (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1994.

Smokove v livadite, Pechatnitsa-izd-vo (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), 1995.

Literaturnata ornitsa: Interviuta, Balkani (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1999.

Avtostradata, Fakel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 1999.

Svirepo nastroenie, Anubis (Sofia, Bulgaria), 2000.

Pupavo vreme, Fakel (Sofia, Bulgaria), 2000.

Izbrano, Anubis (Sofia, Bulgaria), 2000.

PLAYS

Sumatokha, 1965.

Zhelyaznoto Momche (title means "The Iron Boy"), 1968

Yanuari (title means "January"), 1968.

MOTION PICTURES

Goreshto pladne, (screenplay), Studiya za igralni filmi, 1966.

Privérzaniyat balon (screenplay; title means "The Tied Balloon"), Studiya za igralni filmi, 1967.

Posledno lyato (screenplay; title means "Last Summer"), Studia za igralni filmi, 1974.

Contributor to periodical publication Sévremennik.

SIDELIGHTS: Yordan Radichkov is best known for his surreal stories and dramas, in which he continually works to protect his natural environment and reinvigorate his cultural environment. Radichkov's absurdist, grotesque narratives at first found only a popular audience, but by the 1990s, Radichkov became a world-renowned author, playwright, and screenwriter.

Lyubomira Parpulova-Gribble wrote in Dictionary of Literary Biography: "Radichkov's works did not comply with the rules of the so-called method of socialist realism, which many official literary critics tried to enforce." Thus, Radichkov revolutionized Bulgarian fiction.

Radichkov was raised in the small village of Kalimanitsa, in the Mikhaylovgrad district of Bulgaria. According to Parpulova-Gribble, his upbringing made him sensitive to wildlife preservation and other environmental themes, particularly in the 1990s.

Radichkov, who received some formal education at the high school in Berkovitsa, became a reporter for Narodna mladezh in 1951. He was quickly promoted to editor, and moved to the city of Sofia, where he was an editor for a larger paper, Vecherni novini. Four years later, Radichkov moved to the Scenario Board of the Bulgarian Cinematography Company, where he became involved in writing motion pictures. Three years after that, he edited the Lituraturen front.

During this period, Radichkov also began to publish collections of his stories, including Sertseto bie za khorata: Sotochinski razkazi, Prosti retse, Obernato nebe, and Planinsko tsvete. In these early volumes, Radichkov remained within traditional Bulgarian literary bounds. But this changed, beginning with Svirepo natroenie. In that collection, stories depict a bizarre world in which pigs fly through space, dogs can eat stories, and wolves and sheep graze peacefully side by side. Parpulova-Gribble commented: "His narratives are open and can sustain several different interpretations, which is a typical feature of mythical discourse."

Through this open-ended, folk-mythological style, Radichkov criticized political movements and ecological policy. Through surrealism, Radichkov opened up possibilities for literary and political revolution. Though Radichkov gradually began to guide readers, this open-interpretation style remained one of his most enduring qualities.

As Parpulova-Gribble pointed out, Radichkov also contributed significantly to Bulgarian dramatic literature. Again, he pushed the "rules," but reaction was positive. In Lazaritsa, for example, the audience watches a peasant named Lazar hiding in a pear tree from his vicious dog after he tried to shoot it and missed. For a full year, Lazar sits in the tree and wonders what went wrong. The play was a hit. "Perhaps there was some special affinity to theater hidden within the fiction writer that enabled him to produce these unique plays," Parpulova-Gribble wrote, noting that Radichkov's son was a theater director, his daughter a drama critic.

Scenarios he provided for films such as Goreshto plande, Priverzaniyat balon, and Posledno lyato, some of which he based on his own stories, led to major international awards for his fellow Bulgarian filmmakers.

Eventually, Radichkov drew praise for his literary contributions; he was granted various international awards for his work along with appointments to Bulgarian cultural establishments. In 1971, Radichkov became an advisor to the Council for Cultural Treasures, and in 1974 he became an "honored cultural worker." His surreal, mythical style of writing, which initially disturbed and even frightened some readers, eventually became his best achievement.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 181: SouthSlavic Writers since World War II, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1997, pp. 270-274.*