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".

Initially published in 1990, when the "New York Times Book Review" named it one of fourteen "Best Books of the Year," Judith Hemschemeyer's translation of "The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova" is the definitive edition, and has sold over 13,000 copies, making it one of the most successful poetry titles of recent years.

This reissued and revised printing features a new biographical essay as well as expanded notes to the poems, both by Roberta Reeder, project editor and author of "Anna Akhmatova: Poet and Prophet" (St. Martin's Press, 1994). Encyclopedic in scope, with more than 800 poems, 100 photographs, a historical chronology, index of first lines, and bibliography. "The Complete Poems" will be the definitive English language collection of Akhmatova for many years to come.

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.