This is a powerful collection of fifteen memoirs by and about the great poet of the Silver Age of Russian literature. Here are reminiscences that open a window into the Russian literary scene from pre-revolutionary days through the Stalin years and up to the short-lived Kruschev "thaw." The book includes pieces by Akhmatova's husband, the poet Nikolai Gumilev, Alexandr Blok, and Osip Mandelstham. Several of Akhmatova's personal observations and poems about her own life and the life of her beloved Russia are also included.