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 Lotmans Pushkin: A Writers 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. Lotmans unique ability to convey complex ideas with clear elegance of style is perfectly matched in Ilya Nemirovskys 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. Lotmans miniature masterwork, first published in 1981, focuses on Pushkins 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 Lotmans student.
Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
