Remembering Joseph Brodsky
2012 ◽
Vol 5
(1)
◽
pp. 159-194
Keyword(s):
The present article is a memoir that recalls the author’s friendship with the Russian poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky. The author first met Brodsky in Leningrad in 1969 while a graduate student on the US-Soviet scholarly exchange, and they remained friends until Brodsky’s death in 1996. The memoir is chiefly devoted to the author’s encounters with Brodsky himself, but also offers a portrait of his parents and some of his friends within Russia. Brodsky emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1972, after which he took up residence in the United States. The memoir discusses the challenges that emigration posed, the ways that Brodsky met them, and finally the significant influence that Brodsky had on American literary culture.