Ivan Krylov

Ivan Andreyevich Krylov was born on 13 February 1769 and worked for years as a dramatist and journalist before finding his calling. At 40, he turned to fables — first adapting Aesop and La Fontaine, then writing his own, increasingly original and satirical. Those later pieces made him Russia's best-known fabulist, a writer whose compressed wit still hasn't been matched. He died on 21 November 1844.