The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
SynopsisPlot
Born in 1889, Anna survived upheavals, refusing to abandon either Russia or her craft despite vicious attacks on her name and censorship of her work. When committing poems to paper threatened to cause her arrest, a few close friends faithfully memorized her lines. By the time she died in 1966, Anna was recognized as one of the world's great poets. This book contains 800 of her poems, an extensive photo-essay, a preface by the translator, an introduction Anatoly Naiman (Akhmatova's literary agent during the 1960s), and a reprint of Isaiah Berlin's memoir of Anna from his book "Personal Impressions".
Story
About this book
Anna Akhmatova was born in 1889 near Odessa and grew up to become one of the most significant Russian poets of the twentieth century. She lived through revolution, two world wars, and decades of Soviet repression. Authorities censored her writing and publicly attacked her reputation, yet she refused to leave Russia or stop composing poetry. During the most dangerous periods, when putting verses on paper could lead to arrest, a small circle of trusted friends committed her poems to memory, preserving lines that might otherwise have been lost.
This collected edition brings together around 800 of Akhmatova's poems in English translation. It also includes a photo-essay documenting her life, a preface by the translator, and an introduction by Anatoly Naiman, who served as her literary secretary during the 1960s. A reprinted memoir by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, drawn from his book Personal Impressions, rounds out the volume. Berlin visited Akhmatova in Leningrad in 1945, and his account of that meeting became one of the most discussed literary encounters of the century.
Akhmatova's subjects range from early love lyrics written in the St Petersburg artistic circles before the revolution to later works shaped by grief, political terror, and endurance under state pressure. She died in 1966, by then widely regarded as a major figure in world poetry.
