About Daniil Kharms
Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (né Yuvachev; Russian: Даниил Иванович Хармс; 30 December [O.S. 17 December] 1905 – 2 February 1942) was a Russian avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist in the early Soviet era. == Early years == Kharms was born as Daniil Yuvachev (Ювачёв) in Saint Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a member of the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya. By the time of his son's birth, Ivan Yuvachev had already been imprisoned for his involvement in subversive acts against Tsar Alexander III and had become a philosopher. Daniil invented the pseudonym Kharms while attending Saint Peter's School. While at Saint Peter's, he learned the rudiments of both English and German, and it may have been the English words "harm" and "charm" that he incorporated into "Kharms". His pseudonym might have been also influenced by his fascination with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, as the two words (Holmes and Harms) start and end similarly; but there are a number of other theories regarding the pseudonym. Throughout his career, Kharms used variations on this name and the pseudonyms DanDan, Khorms, Charms, Shardam, and Kharms-Shardam, among others. In 1924, he entered the Leningrad Electrotechnicum, from which he was expelled for "poor attendance," "not participating in community service," and not "fitting into the class physiologically". == Career == After his expulsion, Kharms gave himself over entirely to literature. He joined the circle of Aleksandr Tufanov, a sound-poet, and follower of Velimir Khlebnikov's ideas of zaum (or trans-sense) poetry.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.