Joseph Brodsky: a literary life
Lev Losev
trans from the Russian by Jane Ann Miller
Yale, 2011
891.71 B864L
"The work of Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996), one of Russia’s great modern poets, has been the subject of much study and debate. His life, too, is the stuff of legend, from his survival of the siege of Leningrad in early childhood to his expulsion from the Soviet Union and his achievements as a Nobel Prize winner and America’s poet laureate.
In this penetrating biography, Brodsky’s life and work are illuminated by his great friend, the late poet and literary scholar Lev Loseff. Drawing on a wide range of source materials, some previously unpublished, and extensive interviews with writers and critics, Loseff carefully reconstructs Brodsky’s personal history while offering deft and sensitive commentary on the philosophical, religious, and mythological sources that influenced the poet’s work. Published to great acclaim in Russia and now available in English for the first time, this is literary biography of the first order, and sets the groundwork for any books on Brodsky that might follow." -publisher
About the author
"Lev Loseff was professor of Rusiian and Chair of Russian language and literature at Dartmouth College. He published eight collections of verse and fiction in Russian, as well as numerous works of criticism." -publisher
"Jane Ann Miller has previously translated works by Joseph Brodsky, Yuz Aleshkovsky, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and Yegor Gaidar." -publisher