Leo Tolstoy Folk Stories as Apprehended by the American Writer and Russian Illustrator and Emigrant

Abstract

The article discusses the way the creative work of Tolstoy had been infl uencing the ideology formation of the American Tolstoy readers in the middle of the 20th century from the point of view of Dorothy Canfield Fisher, the famous American writer, educational reformer and social activist of that age. The latter definitely vowed for women rights, equality and education foreverybody. Besides organizing  children education according to Montessori method she run the first US educational programme and influenced literary preferences. In 1957 the first American best children book award named Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award was founded. The book encompassed the Tolstoy Folk stories dedicated to the Scripture with engravings of Alexander Alexeieff , the eminent illustrator and the first wave emigrant, dealing mainly with love, kindness an humanism. The American enlightener assumed the book to attract attention of the American public to the necessity of the spiritual education of children and self-perfection of every grown up reader. The authors of the article presume the former to have considered the book to be the source of spiritual love and Angel’s blessing to all its readers regardless of nationality, sex and age.