A short life of the author
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895–1925) was born into a peasant family in Konstantinovo, Ryazan Province, and arrived in Petrograd in 1915 already writing lyrics of extraordinary lyrical beauty. He was taken up by Alexander Blok, became associated with the Imaginist movement, and quickly became the most popular poet in Russia — a position he held until and beyond his death.
His poetry mourns the disappearing Russian village and the natural world threatened by Soviet modernisation. Poems like “The Last Poet of the Village,” “Letter to Mother,” and “Goodbye, My Friend, Goodbye” are known by heart by millions of Russians to this day.
Yesenin’s personal life was spectacularly chaotic: he married Isadora Duncan in 1922 (neither spoke the other’s language fluently), toured America and Europe in a fog of alcohol and scandal, and deteriorated into violent alcoholism. He hanged himself in a Leningrad hotel room in December 1925, having written his final poem in his own blood the day before.
Collecting Yesenin
Early Soviet editions of Yesenin’s poetry are scarce and collected by specialists in Russian modernism. Pre-revolutionary pamphlet editions are exceptionally rare. English translations — most notably by various translators for small literary presses — are modestly priced. Signed material is extremely rare given his early death.