Elin Pelin

Elin Pelin (Bulgarian: Елин Пелин) (8 July 1877 – 3 December 1949), born Dimitar Ivanov Stoyanov (Bulgarian: Димитър Иванов Стоянов) is arguably considered Bulgaria’s best narrator of country life. Born into a large family in the village of Bailovo near Sofia, he loved writing and reading from an early age. Studying to become a teacher, he taught for a year in 1895 in his native village. He was first published in 1901, and the respect it earned him in literary circles encouraged him to go to Sofia in 1903, where he worked as a librarian at the university library. It was during this period he took his now-famous pseudonym from the word pelin, which means wormwood in Bulgarian. He spent 1906-07 in France, perfecting his skills in the language. By this time, he was already a popular writer.

Between 1910 and 1916, he was the director of special collections at the National Library and also served as editor of numerous magazines, including the children’s publication Veselushka. Additionally, he served as a war correspondent during World War I.

Elin Pelin (town)

Elin Pelin (Bulgarian: Елин Пелин), previously known as Novoseltsi (Новоселци), is a town in central western Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of Elin Pelin Municipality, located in central Sofia Province. It lies in the Sofia Valley, with the slopes of the Balkan Mountains to the north and Sredna Gora to the south-southeast, 24 km southeast of the capital city of Sofia.

The number of Thracian, Roman and Byzantine artifacts and ruins in the area proves that the surroundings of Elin Pelin have been inhabited since antiquity. A Slavic settlement was founded in the Middle Ages and existed until the early Ottoman rule of Bulgaria.

Elin Pelin (then Novoseltsi) became to emerge as a local cultural and trade centre during the Bulgarian National Revival. In 1881, after the Liberation of Bulgaria, it was proclaimed the administrative centre of a district. Novoseltsi continued to grow in importance after the construction of the Sofia–Saranbey (now Septemvri) railway line and the establishment of the Izida ceramic factory, the first in the country. A class school and a chitalishte were founded in the late 19th century. Novoseltsi was renamed Elin Pelin in honour of the noted writer of the same name (born in the nearby village of Bailovo) in 1950 and was proclaimed a town in 1960.