Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life

Contents
Preface
Note On Translations And Sources
Chapter One: Home. Parents. First Impressions (War). Heredity. The Lessons Of The City. School Days. Outskirts. Real Education. Brodsky As Jew.
Chapter Two: First Jobs. Expeditions. Social Status. Early Reading. Winds From The West. Modernism. Poetry. Leningrad Poetry, Late 1950s. Brodsky’S Early Verse. Persecution-Prosecution. Umansky And His Circle. Incident In Samarkand.
Chapter Three: The Beginnings Of A Style. Boris Slutsky: Meter, Rhyme, Composition, Intonation. Leningrad Literary Circles. Evgeniy Rein: The Art Of The Elegy. Akhmatova. Marina Basmanova And New Stanzas To Augusta.
Chapter Four: Annus Mirabilis, 1964–1965: Ideology. Persecution In Leningrad. Kanatchikov Dacha And “Songs Of A Happy Winter.” Arrest And Preliminary Hearing. Pryazhka. The Trial. Support For Brodsky And International Fame. Prison.
Chapter Five: Annus Mirabilis, 1964–1965: Exile To Norenskaya. Brodsky And Basmanova. Anglo-American Poetry. Epiphany In Norenskaya. Back From Exile.
Chapter Six: After Exile: 1965–1972. Attempts At Publishing A Book. A Halt In The Desert. Long Poems (1): “Isaac And Abraham.” Long Poems (2): “Gorbunov And Gorchakov.” Leaving The Ussr.
Chapter Seven: The World According To Brodsky. Poetry And Politics. Motherland: Us And Them. Brodsky’s Asia. Questions Of Faith. The World According To Brodsky (Conclusion). Existentialism.
Chapter Eight: Arrival In The West: Auden. Brodsky In America. Carl Proff Er And Ardis. The End Of A Beautiful Era And A Part Of Speech: A Philosophy Of Prosody. The End Of A Beautiful Era And A Part Of Speech: Publication. Brodsky The Professor. Brodsky In New York. Travels. Friends And Foes. Nonmeetings: Brodsky And Nabokov. Brodsky And Solzhenitsyn Speak To America. Afghanistan And Poland. Brodsky And Solzhenitsyn.
Chapter Nine: Fame And Fortune. The Politics And Morals Of The American Campus. Brodsky And The Erotic. Urania. Brodsky In English. Essays. The Nobel Prize.
Chapter Ten: Changes At Home. Democracy ! Busy Years: 1990–1995. Illness. “Being-Toward-Death.” Death.
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index