A Russian emigre writer draws a panoramic view of the cosmopolitan culture that thrived over three centuries in Russia's 'gateway to the West,' producing such figures as Stravinsky, Nabokov, Balanchine, and Chagall. 30,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

'Music illuminates a person and provides him with his last hope; even Stalin, a butcher, knew that'. So said the Russian composer, Shostakovich, who spent his life battling for the right to create his works under the Soviet Union's totalitarian regime.

Considers how Joseph Stalin's unpredictable persecution of artists influenced the life and work of the avant-garde composer, tracing Shostakovich's struggles to remain faithful to his music in spite of attacks on his contemporaries and Stalin's contradictory banning and support of his work. 20,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Joseph Brodsky's life was epic in scope. From imprisonment in the Soviet Union and subsequent flight to the West to a new beginning in the United States and international fame -- culminating in a Nobel Prize -- Brodsky is one of the most fascinating literary figures of our time...read more

A portrait of Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodskey is painted through fifteen years of interviews with the author, depicting his childhood years in war-torn Leningrad, his time in Kruschev's Russia, and his love of the work of fellow poets Auden and Frost. 20,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

The author looks back on his early life in Russia, his career as a violinist, and his memories of the composers, conductors and musicians with whom he has worked

The musical titan of Soviet Russia recalls musicians, artists, writers, conversations with Stalin, and seesawing ideologies (view table of contents)