Joseph Brodsky Biography
Photo: Annalisa Alleva

Joseph Brodsky, 1940-1996, was a native of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. He lived in the United States since 1972, when he was exiled from the Soviet Union. His poetry has been published in twelve languages. His collections of poems include A Part of Speech and To Urania. He published two plays, Democracy! and Marbles. His books of essays are entitled Less than One and Watermark, a long essay on Venice. His numerous awards included the National Book Critics Award for Less than One and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award. Joseph Brodsky received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987. He was chosen by the Library of Congress to serve as Poet Laureate of the United States in 1992. Joseph Brodsky was Andrew Mellon Professor of Literature at Mount Holyoke College, and resided in New York City at the time of his death in 1996.