Poretskii, S.A.: A Journey to the Sahara

Title

Puteshestvie po Sakhare. Po Bremu, Moskva 1912² (first edition: 1902)

A Journey to the Sahara

Keywords

Summary

The volume includes ten illustrations, and presents itself as an adaptation for children of a book by Alfred Brehm. The author portrays the perils and challenges of travelling through the Sahara. He dedicates several pages to the flora and fauna of the desert, featuring such animals as gazelles and fennec foxes. A depiction of oases and an explanation of the phenomenon of simoom, a storm characterised by clouds of dust and sand, are then provided. The author briefly explores the lifestyle of the Bedouins, concluding with a description of a village on the banks of the Nile.

Bio

Sergei Poretskii was a Russian writer, teacher, and naturalist. He studied natural sciences at the University of Saint Petersburg, where, following professor A. Beketov’s recommendation, he pursued an academic career for some time. He later left university and, from 1892, began working as a school teacher of natural history. He was arrested on charges of involvement in revolutionary circles (1897); despite the lack of evidence against him, he was banned from teaching for ten years, and only returned to his job in 1907. A prolific writer, during the course of his life he authored more than forty works, collaborated with various periodicals (for instance “Zhurnal dlia vsekh”, “Iunyi chitatel’”), and translated German authors (including Schiller).

Sources

N. Blagovo, Shkola na Vasil’evskom ostrove: istoricheskaia khronika, t. 1, Sankt-Peterburg 2005, p. 173;

Russkaia intelligentsiia: Avtobiografii i biobibliograficheskie dokumenty v sobranii S.A.Vengerova: Annotirovannyi ukazatel’, t. 2, Sankt-Peterburg 2010, p. 242-243.

M.E.