Joseph Brodsky (1940 - 1996), Russian essayist and poet, was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972. Born in St. Petersburg, Brodsky quit school at age 15. His father, a navy photographer, had lost his position due to the anti-Semitic policies of the Soviets; and the family became mired in persecution and poverty. Largely self-educated, Brodsky had already begun to write poetry. He eked out a living by working as a manual laborer and merchant seaman. He taught himself English by translating the poetry of Robert Frost and John Donne. Writing under his own name, losif Aleksandrovitch, as well as his Anglicized name, his reputation as an underground poet grew quickly. Brodsky's poetry never found a publisher in Russia. His work was copied by hand, and covertly passed from one admirer to another. Inevitably he came to the attention of Soviet authorities. In 1964, after trial in a Soviet court, he was sentenced to hard labor at an Arctic work camp. The Soviets cited his "anti-Soviet work," "social parasitism," and "decadent poetry" as reasons for their persecution. In 1972, with the help of W H. Auden, he emigrated to the United States. In 1981 he received one of the first MacArthur Foundation awards. His essay collection, Less than One, received the National Book Award for criticism in 1986. In 1987, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
