- Person
- Joseph Brodsky
- Lived
- 1940–1996
- Field
- Poetry and essays
- From
- Russian-American
The story
Joseph Brodsky left school at fifteen and never earned a degree. He educated himself in Leningrad by reading whatever books he could find, teaching himself English and Polish along the way. Yet after he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 he became one of the most respected teachers of literature in the United States.
With the help of W. H. Auden and the publisher Carl Proffer, he settled in Ann Arbor and spent a year as poet-in-residence at the University of Michigan. He went on to visiting posts at Queens College in 1973 and 1974, Smith College, Columbia University and Cambridge University, then returned to Michigan from 1974 to 1980.
He was later brought to Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts by the poet and historian Peter Viereck, and was appointed Andrew Mellon Professor of Literature and Five College Professor of Literature. According to the Academy of American Poets, he taught there for fifteen years. He made homes in both Brooklyn and Massachusetts, and his friend Seamus Heaney described him as living frugally, industriously and with a certain amount of solitude. In 1990 he also taught literature in France.
Teaching never slowed his writing. During his years in American classrooms he published the collections A Part of Speech and To Urania and the essays of Less Than One, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He received the Nobel Prize in 1987 and served as US Poet Laureate in 1991 and 1992 while continuing to teach.
Brodsky brought to his students the conviction he had formed in Leningrad: that poetry is not entertainment but one of the highest uses of human speech, and that reading the great poets strengthens both individuals and the society around them. For a man without a diploma to hold named professorships for so many years says much about the depth of his learning and about the colleges that welcomed him.
Why it matters
Over fifteen years at Mount Holyoke and earlier posts across America, Brodsky passed on his passion for poetry to generations of students.
About Joseph Brodsky
Leningrad-born poet tried as a “social parasite” and exiled by the Soviet Union, who became a Nobel laureate in 1987 and Poet Laureate of the United States.
More about Joseph Brodsky
- Joseph Brodsky wanted poetry in every American hotelAs US Poet Laureate from 1991, Joseph Brodsky urged that cheap poetry anthologies be placed in hotels, airports, hospitals and supermarkets.
- Joseph Brodsky defended the poet's calling at his trialCharged with 'social parasitism' in 1964, Joseph Brodsky defended his right to be a poet, and a smuggled transcript made him a symbol of free art.
- Joseph Brodsky co-founded a poetry literacy projectIn 1993 Joseph Brodsky and Andrew Carroll founded the American Poetry & Literacy Project to make poetry a central part of American life.
Sources
- Joseph Brodsky Academy of American Poets
- Joseph Brodsky Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.