Academy

It is a source of wonderment and pleasure that at the age of 89, Czeslaw Milosz, arguably the greatest living poet, continues to publish exploratory works of self-definition and commemoration. “Milosz’s A B C’s,“ expertly translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine, remakes the relatively recent Polish genre of the A B C book — a kind of subgenre of memoir — so that it becomes a flexible hybrid form, a probing and quirky reference book. (review & First chapter) / New York Times 18.2.01 *)

Textprobe (über die amerikanische Academy of Arts and Letters):

The Academy is not made up solely of distinguished old men, and there are definitely names on its membership list which will last. Nonetheless, election to it is determined by fame as measured by the rumors and gossip of the New York establishment, which means that enduring value and momentary fame reside in the same house. One can see that in the roster of foreign honorary members of the Academy. The seven stars of our Eastern constellation were Bella Akhmadulina, V. Havel, Zbigniew Herbert, Milan Kundera, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Voznesensky, and Evgeny Evtushenko. When the last was elected, Joseph Brodsky resigned from the Academy in protest.