Get special secondary education failed. A year after the receipt of the Leningrad College he was expelled from the two statements: "inactivity in public works" and "does not fit the class of physiologically."
Despite this young man is engaged in self-education. Also in 1925, he tried his hand as a poet. His first literary efforts, he signed various pseudonyms - Charms, Dandan, Haarms and others. In the end, he settled on names Harms, which could be interpreted in two ways: in French charm - «charm" and harm the English translates as "harm".
It's a combination of senses, perhaps, reflects the creativity of Daniil Kharms. He started out in a group of Leningrad poets, headed by A. Tufanov, and in 1926 he organized with other poets association "Chinar". They performed at universities, at the skit, in clubs. Poems Harms and his companions were at least unusual for students. "Chinar" experimented with rhythm, rhyme, word semantics.
In 1927, Harms, Vvedensky, Z and Bakhterev organize a new community - Oberiu (Association of Real Art). In a magazine published a declaration oberiutov. They proclaimed their goal of "expanding the deepening sense of the subject and the words," offers a look at the subject of "naked eye". Creativity Harms and his supporters criticized for illogic, but oberiuty sought to absurdism consciously. They argued that "art has its own logic, and it does not destroy the object, but it helps to know." The declaration oberiutov Daniil Kharms is presented as a poet, which is interesting not a static object, and objects in a collision - then, as considered Harms, and manifested their true essence.
Oberiutov real triumph was the evening in Leningrad House of Printing January 24, 1928. He recited poetry, watched the play Harms "Elizabeth Bam. Discussion seen since the night dragged on until the early hours, with no viewer is not left the hall before the meeting.
The reaction was immediate criticism. The next day in the "Red newspaper" devastating article appeared, after which oberiuty could no longer ask for a large-scale promotions. To feed themselves, Harms began to cooperate with children's newspapers and magazines. His poems for children, many literary critics considered a "hack", but even in this area Harms acted professionally and became a classic of children's poetry. Meanwhile, the publication of his "adult" Creativity has no hope.
After an evening at the hostel oberiutov LSU in the magazine "Change" was published by "control" article in which poetry Harms and other representatives of associations was named abstruse, protest in relation to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and therefore counter-revolutionary. Pressure on members of the group increases.
In 1931 Daniil Kharms was arrested. He spent in exile in Kursk year, after which he returned to Leningrad. The next period of creativity and life Harms passes in an increasing voltage. Even children's poems no longer publish, wages are not paid, Harms and his wife live in poverty, starving. Community poets, writers, philosophers can only be "underground", in kitchens, in a whisper. Despite this Harms stubbornly continues to work "on the table." From poetry to prose, it goes, wrote a cycle of short stories "Cases" and the novel "The old woman." Changes and corporate humor Daniil Kharms, a growing pessimism and hopelessness in the works of black humor added. This is quite consistent with the realities of life of the writer.
Since the beginning of the Second World War Harms lives in constant anxiety. "The very first bomb hit our house," - he said. Because of the unusual form (he always dressed extraordinary) writer is often mistaken for a spy. In August '41 Harms was arrested again, this time on the denunciation of the defeatist statements. For a long time his wife and friends did not know about his fate, and only at the beginning of 1942, his wife was informed of his death. Later it became known that the writer threatened to be shot. To avoid this, he feigned mental illness and was sent to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in a "cross", where he died, probably of starvation in the siege of Leningrad winter. In 1960, Daniil Kharms acquitted and rehabilitated.