Aleksander Wat was, in many ways, the archetypal Central European intellectual of the mid-twentieth century, a man who experienced and influenced all the tumultuous political and artistic movements of his time. Yet little has been published about him, even in his native Poland. This book is the first account of Wat's turbulent life, accompanied by a thorough analysis of his extraordinary poems and prose works in their diverse periods and genres. Tomas Venclova, himself a poet of international renown, has uncovered numerous new biographical details, made the surprising discovery of an unfinished novel Wat began fifty years ago, and woven together the themes of Wat's life and work. At different times a futurist, surrealist, and Communist fellow traveler, Wat turned away from communism after his imprisonment by the Soviet secret police and became a vociferous spokesman for democracy. Venclova tells Wat's story from his Polish-Jewish upbringing in the early 1900s, his participation in the literary avant-garde in the 1920s, and his work as editor of an influential Communist journal before World War II through his emigration to the West in 1959 and his death in 1967. Venclova argues convincingly that Wat's literary achievement promoted the rejuvenation of Polish and East European letters after the Stalinist era. His broad intellectual influence on many, including Czeslaw Milosz, helped to consolidate the moral and political opposition to totalitarian ideology that has profoundly changed political realities in the late twentieth century.

Aleksander Wat: Life and Art of an Iconoclast

Biographies & Memoirs

Venclova, Tomas

Arts & Literature

Yale University Press

<div>Aleksander Wat was, in many ways, the archetypal Central European intellectual of the mid-twentieth century, a man who experienced and influenced all the tumultuous political and artistic movements of his time. Yet, little has been published about him, even in his native Poland. This book is the first account of Wat's turbulent life, accompanied by a thorough analysis of his extraordinary poems and prose works in their diverse periods and genres. Tomas Venclova, himself a poet and literature scholar of international renown, has uncovered numerous new biographical details, made the surprising discovery of an unfinished novel Wat began fifty years ago, and woven together the themes of Wat's life and work. At different times a futurist, surrealist, and communist fellow traveler, Wat turned away from Communism after his imprisonment by the Soviet secret police and became a vociferous spokesman for democracy. Venclova tells Wat's story from his Polish-Jewish upbringing in the early 1900s, his participation in the literary avant-garde in the 1920s, and his work as editor of an influential Communist journal before World War II, through his emigration to the West in 1959 and his death in 1967. Venclova argues convincingly that Wat's literary achievement promoted the rejuvenation of Polish and East European letters after the Stalinist era, and his broad intellectual influence on many, including Czeslaw Milosz, helped to consolidate the moral and political opposition to totalitarian ideology that has profoundly changed political realities in the late twentieth century.</div>

Winter Dialogue

Best known in the U.S. as a scholar and critic, Tomas Venclova is a gifted poet whose work has remained largely unknown to an English-speaking audience. This collection of fifty-one poems is as distinctive as it is finely crafted. Also included is a foreword by Joseph Brodsky and an exchange between Venclova and Czeslaw Milosz.

Literature & Fiction

Miłosz, Czesław

Poetry

Northwestern University Press

Unstable Equilibrium: Eight Russian Poetic Texts (Yale Russian and East European Publications No 9) (Russian Edition)

Slavica Pub

Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova is a book in the European tradition of works such as Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz and Aleksander Wat's classic My Century. The book interweaves Eastern European postwar history, dissidence, and literature. Venclova, who personally knew Akhmatova, Pasternak, Milosz, Brodsky, and many others, was also one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. Magnetic North provides an in-depth account of ethical choices and artistic resistance to totalitarianism over a half century. It also details Venclova's artistic work, expanding our understanding of the significance of this writer, whose books are central to contemporary European culture.

Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova (Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe, 17) (Volume 17)

Hinsey, Ellen

University of Rochester Press

Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova is a book in the European tradition of works such as Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz and Aleksander Wat's classic My Century. Taking the form of an extended interview with Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova, the book interweaves Eastern European postwar history, dissidence, and literature. Venclova, who personally knew Akhmatova, Pasternak, Milosz, Brodsky, and many others, was also one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, one of the first human rights organizations in Eastern Europe. Magnetic North provides an in-depth account of ethical choices and artistic resistance to totalitarianism over a half century. It also details Venclova's artistic work, expanding our understanding of the significance of this writer, whose books are central to contemporary European culture. The publication of this book was supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute. Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian poet, writer, scholar, and translator. He is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University. Ellen Hinsey is the author of numerous works of poetry, essay, and literary translation. Her most recent book is Mastering the Past: Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe and the Rise of Illiberalism.

Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova (Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe, 17)

Lithuania's Tomas Venclova is one of Europe's greatest living poets. His work speaks with a moral depth exceptional in contemporary poetry. Venclova's poetry addresses the desolate landscape of the aftermath of totalitarianism, as well as the ethical constants that allow for hope and perseverance. The Junction brings together entirely new translations of his most recent work as well as a selection of poems from his 1997 volume Winter Dialogue.  Tomas Venclova was born in 1937 in Klaipeda, Lithuania.  He was one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group and his activities led to a ban on publishing, exile, and the stripping of his Soviet citizenship in 1977. Since 1985 Venclova has taught Slavic languages and literature at Yale University.            ""Venclova's poems speak well and give an indepth look into the mind of a citizen of [Lithuania]."" - Midwest Book Review                                     ""If the translations gathered in The Junction, a representative offering of the Lithuanian's output since the 1990s, accuratley mirror the originals (as they surely do), then Venclova's craft is simply, and stunningly accomplished in the traditional or historical sense of the term.""-Antioch Review

The Junction: Selected Poems

Bloodaxe Books

In this collection of essays, acclaimed Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova reveals the tangled relationship between poetry and politics in Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe. His perspective on Eastern Europe in the twentieth century is that of a political dissident, a human rights campaigner, a writer, and a critic. His political writings explore and clarify what it means to belong to a nation, while his analysis of the work of major Russian and Polish writers produces a definite view of what it means to be a poet. Included here are essays published in the New York Review of Books and The New Republic, such as ones on subjects from South Africa to Ivan the Terrible, as well as a famous dialogue between the author and the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. Venclova currently teaches Russian and Polish literature at Yale University.

Forms of Hope: Essays

Essays & Correspondence

Sheep Meadow Pr

Sheep Meadow Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Venclova, Tomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Venclova, Tomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Venclova, Tomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Aleksander Wat: Life and Art of an Iconoclast

Aleksander Wat: Life and Art of an Iconoclast

Winter Dialogue

Winter Dialogue

Unstable Equilibrium: Eight Russian Poetic Texts (Yale Russian and East European Publications No 9) (Russian Edition)

Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova (Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe, 17) (Volume 17)

Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova (Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe, 17)

The Junction: Selected Poems

Forms of Hope: Essays

Forms of Hope: Essays