Morning Pages | 23 June 2024
Looking for Akhmatova
Looking for Akhmatova.
The poem is an excerpt from Requiem
The missing book
Akhmatova, Beg vremeni, 1965, first edition with dust-jacket
First edition of Akhmatova’s last book published during her lifetime, and the most complete collection of her poems to that date, with many published here for the first time. Complete with the dust-jacket illustrated with Modigliani’s portrait of the great Russian poetess.
Mine wouldn't have been a first edition, but it was pristine. I wonder if it'll ever turn up or if I really did chuck it out. It's just a thing, right?
My 1995 essay
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'Akhmatova is a very minor poet precisely because she is an excessively personal, and therefore, limited poet.' Is this (Soviet) judgement a fair one?
I remember sitting in the reading room in Albany Park in St Andrews over a weekend to write this essay. Literature essays were generally due on Fridays, so I probably blagged an extension until Monday. It's interesting that I didn't write a date on it—interesting and annoying.
Dropbox
