Alexandra Ishimova

Children’s writer, translator. Born in Kostroma in the family of collegiate assessor and headmaster Josif Ishimov (1804). Lived and worked in St Petersburg (from 1825). Personally acquainted with Nikolai Gogol, Vasily Zhukovsky and Alexander Pushkin, who highly rated her literary talent and was a great admirer of her History of Russia in Stories for Children (1834–41). Edited two magazines for children called Little Star (1842–63) and Rays (1850–60). Joined the Union of Children’s Homes (1845). Died in St Petersburg and buried at the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1881).