Bunina, Anna Petrovna (1774–1829)

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Bunina, Anna Petrovna (1774–1829)

Russian poet. Name variations: Búnina. Born 1774; died 1829; sixth child born into a gentry family.

Russia's 1st major woman poet, moved to St. Petersburg on death of father (1801); used her small inheritance to educate herself and to support her writing; gained prominence with her poetry, An Inexperienced Muse (Vol. 1, 1809, Vol. 2, 1812); to seek treatment for breast cancer, journeyed to England (1815), but wrote very little after 1817, because of illness and pain.

See also Barbara Heldt, Terrible Perfection.