Mykhailo Petrovych Starytsky (Ukrainian: Михайло Петрович Старицький; 14 December 1840 – 27 April 1904), in English Michael Starycky,[citation needed] was a Ukrainian writer, poet, and playwright.[1] He was born in a family of retired cavalry officers (Rittmeister) Petro Starytsky and Anastasia Lysenko.He was a cousin of the famous Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and father-in-law of Ivan Steshenko.He was orphaned early in life and raised by Lysenko's father so that he could supply much of the information for the composer's biography.Later in life, Starytsky worked with Lysenko, collecting Ukrainian folk songs and transforming them into plays and operas for which Starytsky wrote the librettos (including Taras Bulba, an adaptation of the novel by Gogol).
