Khodasevich, the son of a Polish painter and a Jewish-Russian mother, studied at the University of Moscow. His first collections of poetry, Molodost’ (Youth) (1908) and Schastlivyi domik (Happy Little House) (1914), caught the attention of Nikolay Gumilev and the Acmeists. However, excepting some temporary associations with various literary groups, Khodasevich always stood alone. His works were far weightier than the works of other participants in such groups. His most significant collection published in Russia, Putyom zerna (By the Way of the Grain) (1922), expresses his hope for the renaissance of Russia after its destruction in revolution. Maxim Gorky valued Khodasevich’s poetry highly and Khodasevich, in spite of his difficult, unaccommodating nature, always felt grateful affection toward the older poet.
In 1922 Khodasevich, together with his first wife, Nina Berberova, emigrated to Paris, where he became one of the legislators of literary fashion. There he published an anthology of his own translations of Jewish poetry. His second wife was Jewish; after his death, she perished in a Nazi concentration camp.
Khodasevich wrote little, but scarcely any of his verse is inferior. He was an outstanding master of the Tyutchev tradition of metaphysical lyrics. In articles about contemporary literature he was often too cruel, particularly to Vladimir Mayakovsky, but as an essayist he left behind several significant contributions, including important essays on Gavrila Derzhavin and Aleksandr Pushkin.
