Eyewitness account of Frost's 1962 visit to the Soviet Union
At the height of the Cold War in 1962, the most American of poets
travels to the Soviet Union to have it out with Premier Nikita
Khrushchev. For the first time in paperback, Zephyr Press is proud to
bring back into print F.D. Reeve's poignant account of Robert Frost's
visit to the Soviet Union at the invitation of John F. Kennedy. Nearing
the 30th anniversary of the trip, this travelogue details Frost's last
voyage from America in his bid to bring East and West together.
From Robert Frost in Russia
Frost was hesitant both to accept the Russians' admiration and to
acknowledge the status and the energy of the Russian intelligentsia. He
was loath to separate intellectual speculation from politics. At
breakfast this Friday morning, we had chatted about the evening before
and had gone on to discuss the social function in Russia of the writer
and of the intellectual. Frost refused to regard the Russian
intellectuals differently from the American, most of whom he considered
liberal sapheads, casuists, brain pinchers, men of small faith and less
courage. A few days later, however, he had imperceptibly changed his
point of view.
Besides Frost's lucid and curmudgeonly critiques of American and Russian
society in the midst of the Cold War, Reeve's memoir contains intimate
portrayals of Russian poets such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Anna
Akhmatova, as well as Frost's conversation with Khrushchev. Augmented by
a new, retrospective introduction by the noted poet, scholar and
translator, Reeve, the book also features endnotes to the events and
people in the text.
F.D. Reeve is the author of numerous books of translations, literary
criticism, and original poetry, including Concrete Music, and most
recently Moon and Other Failures. Reeve is a professor of Russian at
Wesleyan University, and a recipient of the Golden Rose for lifelong
poetic achievement.
