Yuldash Shamsharov

Yuldash Shamsharov was born in 1907 in the village of Olmos in the Chust district of the Namangan region. He studied first at an old-method school and then at a secular one, and attended teacher-training courses. In 1933 he graduated from the Fergana Pedagogical Institute.

He began his working life in the Tashkent press: in 1933–1934 he was executive secretary of the newspaper Yosh Leninchi, and in 1934–1937 editor of Lenin Uchquni. In 1938–1941 he was executive secretary and department head at Qizil O'zbekiston, in 1941–1944 head of the press sector of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, and in 1944–1947 director of the State Publishing House of Uzbekistan.

In 1955–1962 he worked at Qizil O'zbekiston again, and he edited the magazine Sharq Yulduzi in 1963–1964 and Guliston in 1964–1969. He came to literature as an essayist and later wrote stories, novellas and novels as well.

His collections of essays include Paxtaqaynar (1959), Qahramonlik yo'li (1960), G'urumsaroyliklar (1962), Oshiqlar and Inson qalbi (1969). The novel Chiroq appeared in 1971, and the books Hayot taqozosi (1974), Navbahor qissasi (1975) and Ishq o'ti (1978) are also his.

Shamsharov was also a translator: he rendered several novellas and novels by Ivan Turgenev and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe into Uzbek, and his version of Robinson Crusoe was reprinted many times.

In 1970 he was named Honoured Cultural Worker of the Uzbek SSR, and on 20 November 1982 People's Writer of the Uzbek SSR. He died in Tashkent in 1987.