Maxim Vasiliev was a Russian book publisher and writer. He was mostly known for his books for children.
Background
Maxim Vasiliev was born in 1868 in the village of Tunoshna, Yaroslavl province (now village of Tunoshna, Yaroslavl Oblast', Russian Federation). His father was a wealthy peasant, not alien to reading and writing. As Vasilyev said, his grandmother was the nanny of M. Yu. Lermontov in Tarkhany in 1814-1816.
Education
After graduating from the village school, Maxim Vasiliev was sent to Saint Petersburg and handed over to the bookstore, and then to the library of N. P. Morev, where over the years of service he educated himself, mastered the book business and entered the midst of children's writers and publishers of the Morev Partnership.
Career
For the first time, Vasiliev’s works were printed in Moscow in A magazine for children with short sketches titled From Uncle Vasily's Stories about the children's life of the village where he was born. Thanks to the support of A.N. Toliverova, A.V. Kruglov, N.A. Solovyov-Nesmelov he began to be actively published in the magazine Reading room of the public school, Toy, Children's reading.
Soon Maxim Vasiliev published a collection of short stories In the Forest and in the Field, Guys and Griboy!. Vasiliev’s works were successful among children which were largely determined by the "really-true" narrative style which creates the impression that Vasiliev "Just tells... That's exactly what the nannies, uncles, grandmothers tell ..."
Since 1894, Maxim Vasiliev published all his books in Moscow, already in his own publishing house, including the collections From childhood. Memories and stories for children, Tell Me! (1898), From the Life of Simple People (1909), From Native Life (1903), About Cases worldly. From the stories of the old teacher (1904). Like the previous ones, they are largely autobiographical and sometimes sentimental.
As a publisher, Maxim Vasiliev was a student of A.S. Suvorin, whom he served in 1891-1894 in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. In 1911-1915 he worked as editor-publisher of the monthly magazine for children At school and at home, which published mainly works of writers from the people.