Joseph Brodsky

In 1962, Joseph Brodsky met Marina Basamanova, a painter and began a relationship with her. On 8 October 1967, their son Andrei was born. Political pressure and threats prevented them from marrying each other and subsequently they broke their relationship. He continued to dedicate poems to her after the birth of their son.

In 1990, Joseph Brodsky married Russian-Italian student Maria Sozzani. They had a daughter named Anna.

He died of a heart attack on 28 January 1996, in New York City, at the age of 55.

Joseph Brodsky was born to a Jewish family on 24 May 1940 at Leningrad, Soviet Union. His father, Aleksandr Brodsky, was a professional photographer with the Soviet Navy, and mother, Maria Volpert Brodsky, was a professional translator and book keeper.

Joseph Brodsky was known to have had a rebellious childhood, often being caught for indiscipline. When he was fifteen years he left school and attempted to enroll into the School of Submarines in vain.

He then decided to pursue education to become a physician and this led to him work at the Kresty Prison mortuary. This was followed by a series of other jobs in hospitals, geological expeditions and a ship’s boiler room.

During this phase, he began self-educating himself and learnt Polish and English so that he could translate works of poets, both Polish and English. It was then that he developed interest in topics like philosophy, poetry, religion and mythology.

Joseph Brodsky began his career at a very early age. In 1955, he began by translating literary works and writing his own poetry. His works were largely non-political in nature, and was circulated privately, a few of his works were also published in the journal ‘Sintaksis’.

By 1958, he was a well known name in the literary circle. His poems ‘Pilgrims’ and ‘The Jewish Cemetery’ were among his first appreciated works.

In 1960, he met poet Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, whom he befriended and later even considered as a mentor. In the early 1960’s he had to face harassment from both media as well the Soviet government.

In 1964, he was put under trial for ‘social parasitism’ and his works were denounced as ‘anti-Soviet’. This led to him tried, admitted into a mental institution and later being arrested as well. He was sentenced to five years of hard labour and sent to Arkhangelsk.

While at the labour camp at Arkhangelsk, he used to work all day and read poetry during the night. His biggest influences during the time were poets as W. H. Auden, Robert Frost and John Donne.

Joseph Brodsky was a highly acclaimed poet and essayist. His most notable works include his poetry collections like ‘A Part of Speech’ and ‘To Urania’. He is also the author of the remarkable essay compilations as ‘Watermark’ and ‘Less Than One’.