Elaine Feinstein

A portrait of the Russian poet details the passions that informed her poetry, the banning of her work before and after World War II, her three marriages, her anti-Stalinist beliefs, and her friendship with Shostakovich and Pasternak.

The Life of Anna Akhmatova

Anna of All the Russias

Cities

A Biography

Pushkin

Although Ted Hughes ended his days as England's beloved poet laureate, his life was dogged by tragedy and controversy. In this insightful biography, Feinstein explores an altogether more complex situation, throwing new light on his relationship with his lover Assia Wevill, who later killed herself along with their young daughter. 12 photos.

The Life of a Poet

Ted Hughes

Mother's Girl

A passionate collection of poetry from Elaine Feinstein, 'Talking to the Dead' evokes her long marriage, and the remembered voice of her dead husband.

Talking to the Dead

Elaine Feinstein is a poet of lyrical directness who writes with tenderness about an ageing father, a child on a swing, old films, a flowering cactus, and with insight about love, loss, jealousy, and the fear of abandonment. The poems in this expansive collection are drawn from 11 volumes published over 30 years.

Selected Poems

Portraits

The Circle

" - Maintenant, c'est le théâtre qui sera notre famille, dit-il. Cela me fit réfléchir. Je pensai au nouveau projet, L'Opéra de quat'sous, à la troupe dont j'allais faire partie. C'était effectivement sa famille. Ses amours. Bess Hauptmann avait fait une grosse partie du travail d'écriture ; Weigel jouait le rôle de la tenancière de la maison close ; c'était Casper Neher qui ferait le décor et c'était un de ses amis d'enfance, à Augsbourg. Nous lui appartenions tous. Je réfléchis à cette appartenance. La nuit qui suivit, j'étais heureuse, tout simplement, de faire partie de sa famille. De l'avoir en train de marcher à mes côtés et de parler avec lui comme aux premiers jours de notre amour... - Je pourrai tout contrôler, dit-il dans l'escalier qui menait à ma chambre. - Contrôler, dis-je en ouvrant la porte. Je n'aimais pas ce mot qui brisait l'atmosphère romantique. - C'est comme cela qu'il faut travailler, dit-il en s'énervant. " Chanteuse de cabaret montée sur scène par hasard dans le Berlin de l'entre-deux-guerres, Frieda Bloom a passé sa vie dans l'ombre de Bertolt Brecht, son seul amour mais aussi le seul homme qu'elle fut toujours obligée de partager avec cent autres. E Histoire, aussi, s'est acharnée sur Frieda : chassée d'Allemagne par la montée du nazisme, chassée d'Union soviétique pendant les purges staliniennes, chassée d'une Amérique en proie au maccarthysme, sa vie est une fuite en " si " mineurs.

Je m'appelle Frieda Bloom

Iris Murdoch

Sacred and Profane Love Machine

In The Clinic, Memory, Elaine Feinstein has selected poems from the last half century of her writing life. They range widely: tender, early lyrics from 'In a Green Eye'; elegies for her father and close friends, amused reflections on ageing and longer poems such as 'Gold', based on the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist, or the lot of refugees in 'Migration'. Other poems explore the conflicts in a long marriage, teased out most poignantly in poems for her late husband in 'Talking to the Dead'.

New and Selected Poems

The Clinic, Memory

The Intimate Life of D.H. Lawrence

Lawrence's Women

An original and illuminating exploration of D.H. Lawrence's intimate relationships with women and how these relationships influenced his work and his controversial theories of love. A fresh and surprising portrait of one of the most misunderstood literary figures of our time. Halftones.

Lawrence and the Women

Elaine Feinstein’s poems are the harvest of a lifetime in literature. This selection, made by the author herself, gathers work from over half a century of published writing, and is completed by a section of new poems. The selection ranges from early poems of feminist rebellion and tender observation of children to elegies for the poet’s father and close friends, reflections on middle-age, the conflicts in a long marriage, and meditations on the lot of refugees. In new poems Feinstein records her treatment for cancer, her feelings of dread in the clinic and unexpected moments of ‘extravagant happiness’. The exploration of memory is at once a source of ironic amusement and an acknowledgement of human transience.

A biography of one of the great literary lights of Russia explores the tumultuous career of this great poet, and the life of political censorship, unrequited love, dramatic duels, and artistic fervor it encompassed.

Ted Hughes is one of the greatest English poets of this century, yet his life was dogged by tragedy and controversy. His marriage to the American poet Sylvia Plath marked his whole life and he never entirely recovered from her suicide in 1963, though he chose to remain silent on the subject for more than 30 years. Many people, including his friend Al Alvarez, have held Hughes's adultery responsible for Plath's death. Elaine Feinstein first met Hughes in 1969, and she was a good friend of his and his sister Olwyn's, both of whom guarded the Plath estate. She knows many of the European and America poets who so influenced Hughes - Seamus Heaney, Thom Gunn, Miroslav Holub, and knows the world in which both he and Plath moved.

Traces the life of the Russian poet, describes the background of her times, and attempts to portray her complex personality

The Life of Marina Tsvetayeva

A Captive Lion

The passionate story started in Lady Chatterley's Lover follows the fortunes of Connie and Mellors. Disillusioned with the class system in England and faced with ostracism, the lovers move to Italy. However, disagreements arise when the balance of power shifts in their relationship.

Elaine Feinstein

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