About the book: 1961 / This book tells about the life and creative path of the great Russian writer. His life was not replete with external events. She was all in intense work, in in-depth internal analysis of her actions and thoughts. For Gogol, the work of a writer was inextricably fused with the social, educational role of art, and became for him a creative feat. This difficult ascetic life, which ended in a tragic catastrophe, is described in the book. The writer's biography is recreated here on the basis of his letters, autobiographical confessions, documents, memoirs and testimonies of contemporaries. The author of this book, Nikolai Leonidovich Stepanov, was born in 1902 in the family of a teacher. Graduated from Leningrad University in the Department of Language and Literature and the Institute of Art History. Since 1925 he taught at school and at the workers' faculty. During these same years, he began to publish, publishing articles and reviews in Leningrad and Moscow magazines.N. L. Stepanov owns books and articles on the history of Russian literature, primarily on the work of classic writers of the 19th century: “I. A. Krylov. Life and creativity”, “The skill of Krylov the fabulist”, “Pushkin’s lyrics”, “N. V. Gogol. Creative path", "N. A. Nekrasov." He did a lot of work editing and commenting on Gogol’s works. A number of books and articles by N. L. Stepanov have been translated into foreign languages.