Andrei Aleksandrovich Teils, a Writer Who Nonetheless Existed

Abstract

The paper reconstructs the biography of Andrei Aleksandrovich Teil’s (1782–1822), the author of “Hercules and Daianira”, a tragedy in аlexandrine verse (1807). He is attributed various sentimental poems and translations from French that were published in the journals “Ippokrena” (1799), “Litsei” (1806), “Novosti” (1799), “Novosti russkoi literatury” (1803), “Severnyi vestnik” (1805) and “Severnyi Merkurii” (1811). These publications were signed “A. de Teil’s”, “An. Teil’s”, “An: Teil’s”, “A. Teil’s”, “Teil’s” and until now have been erroneously considered to be the work of Anton Antonovich Teil’s (1733 — after 1798), the uncle of Andrei Aleksandrovich. It has not been noticed that at one point the author revealed his identity by putting the name “Andrei Teil’s” under a poetic translation from Voltaire in “Litsei” (1806). References made in “Puteshestvie v Norvegiiu odnogo molodogo cheloveka v 1801 godu” [A Young Man’s Journey to Norway in 1801] (published in “Severnyi Merkurii” [The Northern Mercury] in 1811; signed A. Teil’s) to the anonymous “Puteshestvie v Shvetsiiu” [A Journey to Sweden] (1811; published after the last part of “Puteshestvie v Norvegiiu odnogo molodogo cheloveka v 1801 godu” in the same journal) indicate clearly that both of these travelogues were written by Andrei Aleksandrovich Teil’s. Furthermore, the travel routes described therein coincide with two trips he took in 1800 and 1801, as can be seen in his curriculum vitae in the Russian State Naval Archive. Closely connected with these texts is the “Idilliia na vozvrashchenie iz Norvegii druga moego A. A. T..lsa v 800-m godu oktiabria 29 dnia” [Idyll on the Return from Norway of My Friend A. A. T..ls on 29 October 1800], published in 1810 in the same review and signed with the cryptonym “P - r U - - ov”. In this case, it is highly probable that the author was Petr Aleksandrovich Ushakov (1783 — after 1804), a classmate of Andrei Aleksandrovich Teil’s at the navy cadet school and a close relative of the famous writer Aleksandr Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749–1802).