Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy

Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, born on September 5, 1817, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was a poet, novelist, and playwright, as well as the second cousin to the novelist Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy authored several notable works, including a dramatist trilogy and his gothic novella, Упырь [The Vampire] (Fisher, 1841). One of the most important nineteenth-century Russian writers during his time, he influenced poets Aleksander Blok, Korney Chukovsky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and others. Tolstoy died on October 10, 1875.