The son of a naval physician, Gumilev was born in Kronstadt and studied in several gymnasiain and near St Petersburg and Tiflis before graduating from the Tsarskosel’skaia gymnasiumin 1906, two years behind his age group. However, Gumilev’s unimpressive academic performance (he completed none of his Sorbonne and St Petersburg University degrees) was compensated by his literary talent, which manifested itself quite early. He reportedly wrote his first four-line poem at the age of six. His first publication, the poem “Ia v les bezhal iz gorodov” [I Ran from Cities into Woods], appeared in the Tiflisskii listok newspaper in 1902. His first collection of poetry, Put’ …
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Citation: Rogatchevski, Andrei. "Nikolai Gumilev". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12469, accessed 23 November 2024.]
