On 3 November 1887, Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak was born – a well-known Russian poet, translator, playwright, screenwriter and literary critic. Marshak is considered one of the most famous authors of children's books. Scatterbrain from Bassaynaya Street, Mr Twister, Silly Mouse, Master Breaker, and other vivid characters from his poems are familiar to everyone from childhood.
In the preface to the set of postcards "S. Marshak" (1977), stored in the electronic fund of the Presidential Library, the poet's son Immanuel Marshak, a world-renowned physicist and translator of Jane Austen's novels, said: "If I could describe my father in one word, I would choose 'movement'. There was nothing inert, stagnant or boring about him. He knew how to 'wind up' people's emotional mechanisms, breaking their passivity with work, humour, joyful play or loving care." As Immanuel Marshak recalled, at his 75th birthday celebration, his father said to his friends: "Boredom is the yawn of non-existence. Pushkin is the highest form of existence, life... I wish you the most important thing – existence!"
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