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 NAR-DOS (Hovhannisyan Mikael) was born on March 3, 1867 in Tiflis. An Armenian writer. He studied at Nicolaev municipal school of Tiflis and at seminary in Kutaisi State. In 1890–1906 he was the responsible secretary of Nor dar («Նոր դար») periodical and  worked at Surhandak («Սուրհանդակ») newspaper in 1913-1918. In the first period of his creative activity Nar-Dos wrote poems, then short stories, filietons, dramatic works. From 1886 he started to write novels. Under the pen name Mikho-Ohan he published the novels  “The true friend” («Ճշմարիտ բարեկամը») (1886), “The benefector and the adoptee” («Բարերար և որդեգիր») (1888), “Tender Strings” («Քնքուշ լարեր») (1887), “Zazunyan” («Զազունյան») (1890) in the “Nor Dar” newspaper. In the series of short stories “Our District” Nar-Dos depicted the poor and showed that superstition and illiteracy are evil in the darkness and misery: “Sakul Left For Pilgrimage”, 1889, "How They Cured", 1889), depicted the brutality and cruelty “What happened when two lumps of sugar disappeared from the sugar bowl” («Թէ ինչ եղաւ հետո, երբ շաքարամանից երկու կտոր շաքար պակասեց», 1890, “Hoopoe” («Տոպոպ»), 1890) etc. In the short story "Anna Saroyan" (1888), he revealed the social and psychological reasons of the family breakdown. 

In the short story “Me and him” (1889) the author depicted the fate of the individual with its variations. From 1891 psychological analysis became typical of Nar-Dos’s works. The difficult and tragic fate of the Armenian woman is depicted in the novel “The Killed Dove” (1898), in the short stories “One of those Bad Days” (1904), “One day in Autumn” (1907), “The Editor” (1913)  Nar-Dos described the difficult life of the Armenian intellectuals. In the novel “Struggle” (1911) he showed the collision of the main social movements of the time, of conservative and liberal or so called innovative movements. Taking them as a starting point the author touches upon social issues, depicted the tragedy of life. 

The novel “The Death” (1912) is one of the achievements of the Armenian realistic literature in which he described the everyday and social life of the Armenian intellectuals.  The author contrasted the sacrificing nature of the people to selfishness and greed. 

Nar-Dos depicted the fall of the individual who took the pessimistic, “without faith” views of Schopenhauer and others and opposed him to the individual who sacrificed his life for the Armenian people in the struggle against the Turkish tyranny. The short story “Lost without a trace” («Անհետ կորածը») (1920) is against the war.

In the last years of his life Nar-Dos wrote fragments of the novel “The New Man” («Նոր մարդը») (1928) and the short story “The Last of the Mohicans” («Վերջին մոհիկանները») (1930). Nar-Dos along with Shirvanzade and G. Zohrap developed the realistic literary- psychological movement in the Armenian literature. 

 Nar-Dos died on July 13, 1933 in Tiflis and is buried in Khojivanq Pantheon. 

Source - "Who is Who. The Armenians" Encyclopedia, Volume I, chief-editor Hovh. Ayvazyan, Yerevan, 2007.