Synopses & Reviews
However, throughout her life she remained committed to being a witness for the times with her daring poetry and prose. This collection includes Akhmatova's letters, essays on Pushkin, diatribes against the Stalinist establishment, rousing wartime broadcasts, and encounters with fellow poets. Here, through her deceptively simple style, the elusive writer conveys the closest thing to a self-portrait she ever allowed herself.
Review
"A real achievement." --Robert P. Hughes, Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
This collection includes Akhmatova's letters, essays on Pushkin, diatribes against the Stalinist establishment, rousing wartime broadcasts, and encounters with fellow poets. Here, through her deceptively simple style, the elusive writer conveys the closest thing to a self-portrait she ever allowed herself.
Synopsis
Anna Akhmatova lived in a world suffused with tragedy: She faced the execution of her poet husband, the imprisonment and exile of her son, the deaths of many friends in labor camps, and personal censorship and illness.
About the Author
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) is known as one of twentieth-century Russia's greatest poets. She suffered repression under Stalinism and after World War II; her literary achievement was finally internationally recognized in the final years of her life.Ronald Meyer teaches the seminar on Russian literary translation at Columbia University. His most recent translation is Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler and Other Stories.