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| 1/15/1891 |
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The Mandelstams: Hope Against Hope
On this day in 1891 the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam was born. While by no means the only writer driven to death by Stalin's Reign of Terror, Mandelstam became the symbol of all those so destroyed. This is partly because of his poetry -- most rank him among the best Russian poets, some among the best of all 20th century poets -- and partly because of his wife, who salvaged his work and told his story in her memoir, Hope Against Hope. |
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| 5/30/1960 |
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Pasternak & Persecution
On this day in 1960 Boris Pasternak died, at the age of seventy. Pasternak's last years were dominated by the publicity and persecution which attended the publication of Doctor Zhivago. The Soviet line, communicated by quiet threat and noisy rhetoric, was that Pasternak and his novel were anti-communist; but he was also the subject of contempt from many of his peers, who believed that he acted cowardly in his complacency toward the Soviet regime. |
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Academy of American Poets
Find a biography, bibliography, and recommended links.
"In the late twenties came a new wave of intolerance and terror. ... It was a time of crisis, as Pasternak was well aware. Many writers and artists felt the [temptation] to commit suicide. Pasternak believed that, for the poet, it was was essential to overcome this temptation and the fear of the future, and to continue working when art and even spiritual existence were no longer secure, a theory Pasternak expressed through the metaphor of 'second birth.'" |  | Boris Pasternak, 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature
Pasternak was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition." Visit the official Nobel website for an author biography, Pasternak's Swedish Nobel Stamps, and other resources. | | Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database
A summary of Doctor Zhivago and brief commentary.
"For Dr. Zhivago, philosophy, literature, and medicine are all part of the same thing. They all are spaces in which he can express his love and respect for the beauty of life. In all these spheres, he is undogmatic, unrational, but wholly devoted to justice." | | Pasternak's Hamlet
Offers a biography, commentary by Pasternak on Hamlet ("... the drama of a high destiny, of a life devoted and preordained to a heroic task."), and essays on the author's 1941 translation of the Shakeapeare's classic work.
"If Pasternak's Hamlet lacks some elements of Shakespeare's tragic vision, it does not lack those difficult-to-define qualities which make a literary work a work of art. There is a story often told concerning this translation: A pedant once came to Pasternak's door to charge him with a long list of inaccuracies in his Hamlet. Pasternak's response was laughter, a shrug, and the statement: 'What difference does it make? Shakespeare and I -- we're both geniuses, aren't we?' Max Hayward, who reports the incident as having been told him by Voznesensky, adds that this particular translation is today considered 'one of the glories of Russian literature.'" | |
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The TinL masthead features photography by
Natasha D'Schommer
, and the book art featured is by Jim Rosenau.
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