Biography

Nodar Dumbadze (Georgian: ნოდარ დუმბაძე, July 14, 1928 – September 4, 1984) was a popular Georgian writer. Born in Guria, he graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Tbilisi State University in 1950. His first poems and humorous stories appeared in the Georgian press in the same year. He edited the satirical magazine Niangi from 1967 until 1972, when he became a secretary of the Union of Georgian Writers and a member of the presidium of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1972. Most of his fame came through his novels Me, Grandma, Iliko and Ilarioni (მე, ბებია, ილიკო და ილარიონი; 1960), I Can See the Sun (მე ვხედავ მზეს; 1962), The Sunny Night (მზიანი ღამე; 1967), Don’t Be Afraid, Mother! (ნუ გეშინია, დედა!; 1971), The White Banners (თეთრი ბაირაღები; 1973), and The Law of Eternity (მარადისობის კანონი; 1978). His works are remarkable for simplicity and lyricism of the prose, humor, and melancholy coupled with optimism. He was awarded the Shota Rustaveli State Prize in 1975 and the Lenin Prize in 1980. Most of his major works have been dramatized and/or filmed. He died in Tbilisi and was buried in the city, at the Mziuri Park, which he founded in 1982 for the capital's children. In September 2009, his body was moved to the Mamadaviti temple in the Mtatsminda Pantheon.