Literature · 1940–1996
Born: 24 May 1940 · Died: 28 January 1996 · Age at death: 55
Joseph Brodsky died aged 55. He was born on 24 May 1940 and died on 28 January 1996.
Russian poet expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 who became US Poet Laureate and won the Nobel Prize in Literature
Did you know?After being expelled from the Soviet Union, he settled in the United States and served as the nation's Poet Laureate.
Joseph Brodsky was a poet whose talent the Soviet state tried and failed to silence. He left school at 15 and worked in factories, morgues and on geological expeditions while teaching himself languages. In 1964 a Leningrad court convicted him of "social parasitism" and sent him to a labour camp in the north. Writers abroad protested, and he was released early. In 1972 he was expelled from the Soviet Union and settled in the United States. He wrote poetry in Russian and essays in English. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987.
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996), anglicized as Joseph, was a Russian and American poet and essayist.
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Profile
Russian-American poet, 1940–1996
Joseph Brodsky was born in Leningrad on 24 May 1940.
He was tried for social parasitism in 1964.
He was expelled from the USSR in 1972.
He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987.
Career highlights
Did you know?He was Poet Laureate of the United States in 1991–92.
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