Joseph Brodsky

Russian-American poet (1940-1996) · United States · Writers · Died at 55

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A poet the Soviet Union couldn't tolerate and the West couldn't ignore. Brodsky's verse carried enough clarity and weight that exile became a Nobel Prize, a laureateship, and the rarest thing in Russian letters: canonization while still alive.

Writers Writer / Author Poetry Theatre Literature 20th Century

A life in dates

1996Died28 January 19961995“For darkness restores what light cannot repair. There we are married, blest, we make once more the two-backed beast and children are the fair excuse of what we're naked for.”In their wordsQuoted in: Drusilla Modjeska, ‎Beth Yahp (1995) Picador New Writing. Vol. 3-4, p. 13Read the whole statement

1993Honorary DoctorateAward1991Golden WreathAwardUnited States Poet LaureateAward1989“You know, when you go outside on the streets after having spent the day writing, you feel like a foreign body, even in your own country.”In their wordsTalking about exile in the documentary Joseph BRODSKY - Poète russe, Citoyen américain, 1989.Read the whole statement

1988“He’d be a ruin by now, both physically and mentally. Physically because of the bottle. . . .”In their wordson what would have become of his friend Mikhail Baryshnikov if he had stayed in Russia, 1988 interview with Arlene Croce, as quoted in TheRead the whole statement

1987Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1986“The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. This is what really bothers you, that you can't win.”In their wordsp. 28Read the whole statement

“It is the army that finally makes a citizen of you; without it you still have a chance, however slim, to remain a human being.”In their wordsLess Than One: Selected Essays (1986)Read the whole statement

National Book Critics Circle Award in CriticismAward1984“The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity.”In their words"A Commencement Address" (1984), delivered at Williams College; As quoted in: Robert Inchausti (2014) Thinking through Thomas Merton. p. 110Read the whole statement

1981MacArthur Fellows ProgramAward1978Honorary DegreeAward1977Guggenheim FellowshipAward1940Born24 May 1940

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Joseph Brodsky 1988

Joseph Brodsky 1988 (cropped)

Josef Brodsky

Josef Brodsky crop

Brodsky Visa

Почтовая марка с портретом И.А. Бродского. 2015 год

Brodskij Wilno

Brodsky plaque

In their own words 8

Joseph Brodsky

8 statements, newest first

For darkness restores what light cannot repair. There we are married, blest, we make once more the two-backed beast and children are the fair excuse of what we're naked for.
1995, Quoted in: Drusilla Modjeska, ‎Beth Yahp (1995) Picador New Writing. Vol. 3-4, p. 13, Own words
You know, when you go outside on the streets after having spent the day writing, you feel like a foreign body, even in your own country.
1989, Talking about exile in the documentary Joseph BRODSKY - Poète russe, Citoyen américain, 1989., Own words
He’d be a ruin by now, both physically and mentally. Physically because of the bottle. . . .
1988, on what would have become of his friend Mikhail Baryshnikov if he had stayed in Russia, 1988 interview with Arlene Croce, as quoted in The, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Honorary Doctorate1993

United States Poet Laureate1991

Golden Wreath1991

Nobel Prize in Literature1987

National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism1986

MacArthur Fellows Program1981

Honorary Degree1978

Guggenheim Fellowship1977

Rome Prize

Knight of the Legion of Honour

Honorary Citizen of Saint Petersburg

Family

Father Aleksandr Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky

Partners

Spouse Maria Sozzani

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About this person

Born in Leningrad in 1940, Iosif Brodsky learned his craft under the suspicion of Soviet authorities who eventually expelled him in 1972. W. H. Auden helped him settle in the United States, where he taught at Mount Holyoke, Yale, Columbia, Cambridge, and Michigan. The Nobel committee awarded him its literature prize in 1987 for "an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity." He became U.S. Poet Laureate in 1991. Moscow State University's Andrey Ranchin calls him "the only modern Russian poet whose body of work has already been awarded the honorary title of a canonized classic" - an exceptional phenomenon for a contemporary writer. Scholars place him among the century's most influential Christian poets alongside Eliot, Mandelstam, and his one-time mentor Anna Akhmatova, though Brodsky himself said in 1972, "I consider myself a Christian. Not a good one but I try to be."

Country

United States

In common with Joseph

Paweł PawlikowskiAlso in From Moscow to Pietushki (1990)

Nigel WilliamsAlso in From Moscow to Pietushki (1990)

Robert FrostBoth received United States Poet Laureate

Louise GlückBoth received United States Poet Laureate

W. S. MerwinBoth received United States Poet Laureate

Gwendolyn BrooksBoth received United States Poet Laureate

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