This frank and detailed memoir of Sergey Esenin is indispensable for anyone interested in the literary avant-garde of the twenties....

This is the story of an extraordinary friendship and an extraordinary poet seen through the prism of an extraordinary time and place - the upside-down world of Moscow just after the Revolution. By the time Sergei Esenin met Mariengof in 1918, his lyrical verse had made him a national celebrity....