Major statements by the celebrated Russian poet Boris Pasternak
(1890-1960) about poetry, inspiration, the creative process, and the
significance of artistic/literary creativity in his own life as well as
in human life altogether, are presented here in his own words (in
translation) and are discussed in the extensive commentaries and
introduction. The texts range from 1910 to 1946 and are between two and
ninety pages long. There are commentaries on all the texts, as well as a
final essay on Pasternak's famous novel, Doctor Zhivago, which is looked
at here in the light of what it says on art and inspiration. Although
universally acknowledged as one of the great writers of the twentieth
century, Pasternak is not yet sufficiently recognized as the highly
original and important thinker that he also was. All his life he thought
and wrote about the nature and significance of the experience of
inspiration, though avoiding the word "inspiration" where possible as
his own views were not the conventional ones. The author's purpose is
(a) to make this philosophical aspect of his work better known, and (b)
to communicate to readers who cannot read Russian the pleasure and
interest of an "inspired" life as Pasternak experienced it.