Vezhinov, Pavel

(pseudonym of Nikola Delchev Gugov). Born Nov. 9, 1914, in Sofia. Bulgarian writer. First published in 1932. In his early collections of short stories, such as Unpaved Street (1938), he realistically depicts urban mores. The impressions of the participant in the Patriotic War of the Bulgarian people of 1944-45 are reflected in the novellas of the collection The Second Company (1949; Dimitrov Prize, 1950); the courage of the partisans is depicted in the novella In the Valley (1950). The novel The Dry Plain (1952) is dedicated to the birth of a new socialist morality. Vezhinov’s works of the late 1950’s and 1960’s, such as Far From the Shores and The Smell of Almonds, pose acute problems of duty and are distinguished by their depth of psychological analysis. Vezhinov also wrote motion-picture scripts and novels for teen-agers.