 Maxim Gorky, novelist, playwright and essayist was the founder of Socialist Realism. Although known principally as a writer, he was also a prominent figure in the Russian Revolution. Gorky was born on March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod, USSR. Gorky s first short story was published in 1892, and his collection Sketches and Stories (1898) was an instantaneous success, making him famous throughout Russia. Gorky s best works are his autobiographical and literary memoirs. Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev (1928) is hailed as his masterpiece.