Close to the Poets. Memoirs: Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Pasternak, Lev Gumilev

Emma Grigoryevna Gershtein 1903–2002 — literary historian, memoirist. Emma Gershtein was fortunate to be close to those whose names are inscribed in the history of Russian culture. Up close, rather than from a distance, she observed the outstanding writers and scholars of the 20th century — Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Lev Gumilev, Nikolai Khardzhiev. The memoirs published in 1998 became a real event in literary life, and slavicist Omri Ronen called them “relentless.” Gershtein wrote about her heroes with precision, passion, and expressiveness, not shying away from either her love for them or her rejection. The book “Close to the Poets” also includes literary studies and late memories of E.G. Gershtein, published in the magazine “Znamya” in 1999 and 2002 years.