[James Wilk]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080803/...olzhenitsyn_dc

[Robert Meyer]

Here's a little more detailed article, I think.

<u>Solzhenitsyn, chronicler of Soviet gulag, dies</u>

http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?...0803-520721441


Interesting that he both rejected Communism and the wild Capitalism after the fall the the Soviets, at least in the article's take on it. Also the referrences to his Orthodox faith in the news story.

Robert Meyer

[Jennifer Reeser]

How rare a soul. How sad a day.

[David Landrum]

Solzhenitsyn was one of the greatest writers of all time, and a writer whose works I was privileged to teach. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is, in my opinion, one of the most profound books ever written. I've read it and taught it again and again. The Cancer Ward come as close second--and other works of his.

Solzhenitsyn was not a poet--but I remember reading a book of short prose vignettes by him that approached poetry. One of them inspired one of the first poems I published--in fact, I think it was the first poem I published--called "Abandoned Chapel." It was a take-off of one of Solzhenitsyn's prose pieces that described a locked-up, abandoned church.

Planet earth has certain lost an elder statesman for freedom and human dignity.

dwl

[G. M. Palmer]

Solzhenitsyn was most definately a poet .

[Jennifer Reeser]

Awhile back, I received my contributor's copy of an issue of the magazine First Things which had printed one of my sonnets. I was thrilled to see that the issue contained, along with my writing, Solzhenitsyn's work, his poem "A Prayer for Russia," never before translated into English. The poem has since been archived on the Web:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...1/ai_n26178600

[David Landrum]

Okay, then I stand pleasantly corrected! I didn't know he wrote poetry but will defintely seek it out.

dwl

[Tim Murphy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121789321809111815.html?mod=opinion_main_comment aries

He did become something of a fractious old scold, as these remarks at Harvard 30 years ago show. He overestimated the moral decay of the West, and he unforgivably praised Putin for restoring Russia to her greatness. My own view is that Putin destroyed Russia's nascent democracy. But what a great writer! Sad news.