Survivor of the Leningrad Siege, largely self-educated, and the holder of a wide variety of jobs before he took up writing, Joseph Brodsky was not only a survivor, his life is a testament to those who struggle and prevail. He is best known today as a Poet Laureate of the United States, appointed in 1991.

Born to a Leningrad, Soviet Union family, Brodsky's father was a Naval photographer who also published in the private sector. His mother was an interpreter by profession. He was but a toddler when the year-long Siege of Leningrad began in 1941. During this time residents of the city were prevented from obtaining food, medical, and other materials necessary for the maintenance of human life. Brodsky and his parents nearly starved, but were fortunate, since the Leningrad Siege was one of the longest and deadliest in history.

The siege was part of the German Operation Barbarossa for the Eastern Front. More than one-and-a-half million people died during the two-year long siege. While the young Brodsky survived, he later suffered from health problems brought on by such a long period of starvation during his earliest years of development. When he was fifteen he decided to leave school and try to join the Navy. He was especially interested in becoming a submariner, but was not accepted to train for that position. He took a job as a milling machine operator for a while, and then decided to pursue a career in medicine.

He worked for a time at a prison morgue, in a hospital, and ventured further afield to jobs on board a ship, and participated in geological expeditions. During this entire period he embarked on a journey of self-education and discovery. He studied English and Polish, classical philosophy, religion, mythology, and British and American poetry. He then began to write his own poetry, as well as begin a career in translating poetry to Russian.

The great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was an early mentor to Brodsky. While his poetry never revealed his political persuasion, he was nonetheless arrested in 1963 and again in 1964, and charged with social parasitism. He was convicted and sentenced to five years internal exile and physical work. However, his sentence was commuted one year later after prominent Soviet and foreign artists, poets, and philosophers protested. Four of Brodsky's poems were published in the Soviet Union during this period. However, once the Khrushchev Thaw ended and Leonid Brezhnev took the reigns of power, poetry and other creative work was edited and censored prior to publication.

Brodsky refused to cooperate, and so most of his poetry was published either in the West, or in samizdat form. Brodsky's unwillingness to play by Soviet rules led to his expulsion from his homeland in 1972. He relocated to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1977. He began to teach at American universities. His first position was at the University of Michigan. He later taught at Queens College, Smith College, Columbia University, and even at Cambridge University in England.

He was the recipient of many American awards, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's "genius" award. In 1987 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. An oft-appearing theme in Brodsky's work concerns how poets relate to their society. He believed that literature was partially responsible for the world's ability to overcome the massive tragedies of the twentieth century. Brodsky had a son by an earlier relationship in Russia. During the 1990s he and his son were reunited in New York. Brodsky married late in life, to a young student named Maria Sozzani. The couple had one child, a daughter, Anna.

Brodsky died in New York City, at home, in 1996. He suffered from a heart attack, which caused his death. He is buried in Venice, Italy, the setting of his book, Watermark.