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 etched 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 of Gershtein, published in 1998, became a real event in the literary life, and Slavist Omri Ronen called them “ruthless.” Gershtein wrote about her heroes aptly, passionately, expressively, unashamed of either her love for them or her disapproval. The book “Close to the Poets” also includes literary-critical articles and later memories of E. G. Gershtein, published in the magazine “Znamya” in 1999 and 2002.