The biography of Sergei Gandlevsky (1952) is typical for a whole circle of authors: the impossibility of being published in the USSR for ideological and aesthetic reasons, renegade, friction with the KGB, traveling around the country as expeditionary workers, etc. Together with Alexander Soprovsky, Tatyana Poletaeva, Alexander Kazintsev, Bakhyt Kenzheev, Alexey Tsvetkov, he was a member of the poetry group “Moscow Time”. Recognition came to the inhabitants of the cultural “underground” in the 1990s. Gandlevsky is a winner of several literary awards, his poems and prose have been translated into many languages. “A Happy Mistake” is the most complete collection of Sergei Gandlevsky’s poems to date. The book also includes essays in which the author shares his thoughts on poetry.