From the artistic passion of the St Petersburg poets and bohemians, to the collective suffering of a nation through this turbulent century, Akhmatova spoke to, and for, the soul of her people. Born in 1889, Anna survived upheavals, refusing to abandon either Russia or her craft despite vicious attacks on her name and censorship of her work. When committing poems to paper threatened to cause her arrest, a few close friends faithfully memorized her lines. By the time she died in 1966, Anna was recognized as one of the world’s great poets. This book contains 800 of her poems, an extensive photo-essay, a preface by the translator, an introduction Anatoly Naiman (Akhmatova’s literary agent during the 1960s), and a reprint of Isaiah Berlin’s memoir of Anna from his book Personal Impressions .