Boris Pasternak,
the son of Jewish parents, was born in Moscow,
Russia, on 10th February, 1890. His father
was a painter and his mother a talented pianist.
Pasternak
studied music and philosophy at Moscow University and the University
of Marburg in Germany. He began writing
poetry and his first volume, A Twin in the
Clouds (1914).
During
the First World War Pasternak worked in a
chemical factory in the Urals. He continued writing and the publication
of My Sister Life (1922), Spektorski
(1926), 1905
(1925), Lieutenant Schmidt
(1926) and The Second Birth (1932)
established him as the Soviet Union's most important poet.
Pasternak's
poetry did not reflect the dominant ideology of Socialist
Realism and during the purges in the 1930s he stayed out of prison
by concentrating on translating the work of other European writers.
In 1956
Pasternak submitted a novel, Doctor Zhivago,
for publication. It was rejected because the publisher disapproved
of its treatment of the October Revolution.
The manuscript was smuggled out of the country and over the next two
years was published in 18 different languages.
The Soviet
government threatened to deport Pasternak and he was expelled from
the Union of Soviet Writers. Boris Pasternak
died in Peredelkino, on 30th May, 1960.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
