Pushkin

“[T]his brief biography is a masterpiece. It is well worth reading not only for its portrait of Russia’s greatest poet but also for its jargon-free method of depicting a life in terms of literary roles. Few young people today pay much attention to literature, but their sense of self seems to be shaped in much the same way by the heroes and heroines of films and the actors and actresses who play them.”

— Gary Saul Morson, The New Criterion

“This biography is an accessible point of entry for newcomers to the scholarly achievement of Yuri Lotman, and it is an invaluable, endlessly insightful biography of Pushkin on its own terms. How lucky we are to have it now in English. And the magisterial introduction by David Bethea caps it off brilliantly.”

— Stephanie Sandler, Harvard University

“It often happens that we learn about great writers in a curious order of “life and works,” as if the unruly mess of their lives has to end before they are finally free to start working on their masterpieces. Yuri Lotman’s “Pushkin: A Writer’s Biography” flouts any such convenient dichotomies. It follows the man who lived his life to write and who had the courage to turn all that life threw at him (exiles, duels, debts, isolation during a pandemic) into an excuse to work more. Lotman’s unique ability to convey complex ideas with clear elegance of style is perfectly matched in Ilya Nemirovsky’s translation.”

— Daria Khitrova, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University 

“In his illuminating preface to this excellent English translation, David Bethea notes that the native element, for both the biographer and his subject, is poetry: signs, codes, symmetries, boundaries one can consciously transgress, and closure that one must celebrate. Lotman’s miniature masterwork, first published in 1981, focuses on Pushkin’s relentless self-creation in shifting, unfree sociopolitical contexts. The book was designed as a guide for school teachers. Every page reminds us how glorious it is to be Lotman’s student.”

— Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

"This scholarly work is not a typical biography, although Pushkin’s entire life is covered, nor is it narrative nonfiction. The focus is on how his life and times impacted Pushkin and how he developed as an artist. I read it slowly, challenged by details of history new to me. It is a rewarding read, and an inspirational story."

— A. Bekofske, The Literate Quilter