As a journalist, Arthur Ransome ( 1884 - 1967 ) covered the Russian Revolution at first hand for the Daily News. Having made himself fully conversant with the Russian language, in 1916 he published a collection of Russian legends and fairy stories, "Old Peter's Russian Tales ". In 1924 he married Trotsky's secretary. Arthur Ransome is now chiefly remembered for his "Swallows and Amazons" children's books, published between 1930 and 1947.