Q. Where did the poet Joseph Brodsky live in Ann Arbor?
A. Brodsky was born and raised in the Soviet Union, but his poetry was deemed critical by the government, and in 1972 he was convicted of “malicious parasitism.” Declared a “pseudo-poet in velveteen trousers,” he was pressured to leave the country.
According to an article on the U-M’s history website, Brodsky’s friend Carl Proffer was visiting him at the time. Since deceased, Proffer was a U-M professor of Slavic Languages and Literature who with his wife, Ellendea, published works by Brodsky and other suppressed Russian writers through their Ardis Press.
At Proffer’s urging, the university found a place for Brodsky as poet in residence. Eventually promoted to full professor, he lived at 309 Wesley St. (near Mack School) until leaving for New York City in 1981.
In 1987 Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he became the U.S. Poet Laureate in 1991. In an Ann Arbor News interview during a visit the following year, he expressed nostalgia for Nichols Arboretum and the “very cool” Del Rio bar.
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Calls & Letters, October 2024: Another Brodsky residence
“I’d like to correct your answer in the October 2024 question corner about where Joseph Brodsky lived while in Ann Arbor,” Emily Gordon emailed. “He lived on the third floor of the home of Drs. Jesse and Anitra Gordon at 1808 Hermitage, commonly known as ‘The Hermitage.’”
Gordon knows because she lived there, too. “He probably rented from us from ’76–’80,” she writes. “I found a picture of Brodsky and [CBS journalist] Morley Safer’s interview that was taken on the driveway of our home.”