My Life - Tapa dura

Marc Chagall´s strange autobiographical essay on his early life has established itself as a unique document in twentieth-century literature. Completed by the artist in 1922, this memoir was not available in English until Peter Owen published this translation in 1965 and it has remained in print ever since. Lyrical and evocative, it is a key work in Chagall studies for the light it throws on the shaping of the artist´s creative genius. His deep roots in Jewish tradition, both religious and secular, are reflected in these recollections of his poverty-stricken youth in Witebsk, White Russia, to the Paris art world prior to the First World War and back to Russia until his decision in 1922 finally to return to Paris.