July 29, 2010
Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life
There are very few poets — if any — who have attained the level of success of Joseph Brodsky.
He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1991 to 1992. He received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius” award in 1981. He won the National Book Critics Award for Criticism in 1986 for his collection of essays, Less Than One.
One more thing: he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987.
Brodsky, a Russian-Jewish poet who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and became a U.S. citizen in 1977, often wrote about the power of literature on its audience. He seemed somewhat ambivalent about his Judaism although he included Jewish subjects in his writings. In the end, he was buried in the Episcopalian section of a Venice cemetary.
Now, we may gain more insight into Brodsky’s thinking and his feelings toward Judaism. A newly-translated book, Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life, is set to be published for the first time in English and it may shed more light on the poet’s writing and life.
From what I’ve read, the book has already received much acclaim in Russia. It was originally written by Lev Loseff, a professor of Russian language and literature at Dartmouth College who has already published eight collections of verse and fiction in Russian as well as numerous works of criticism.
At this point, we’ll have to sit back and wait for the book. Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life will be published in early 2011.