October 2020. New Acquisitions F O R E W O R D
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OCTOBER 2020. NEW ACQUISITIONS F O R E W O R D Dear friends, We are happy to present to you our new catalogue with the latest carefully selected acquisitions. As we continue to navigate through these difficult times we can’t help but dream of time machines to take us to a future where we can all gather again to discuss books, literature, life (this inspired our catalogue cover!). At least with books from our collection we can travel back in time and learn how people were coping with many difficulties that the 20th century presented to them. For example, frontline notes taken by Sofia Fedorchenko during WWI (#1) or stories about women during the Siege of Leningrad who had to bravely try on men’s occupations in order to stay alive (#4). Hardships and achievements of women are explored in books of our first section. We continue to explore book design and printmaking of the early Soviet era - from books printed on cloth (#14) and with glass lithography (steklografiya) (#19 & 20) to more sophisticated books by Solomon Telingater (#22 & 23), Rodchenko (#16) and photo books (#10 & 11). Very beautiful (thanks to the size and colorful illustrations) books in our Folk Art section - #12 dedicated to national ornaments of a small ethnic group of Pamiris hidden from our eyes in mountains of Bukhara; #13 is all about carpets of Bessarabia, region where west and east collided and intertwined many times in the past which expectedly gave us unique arts and designs. Literature section is filled with classics this time - Shakespeare in Russian (#5,6) as well as other prominent English speaking authors (#7) but not without our own Russian genius of Mikhail Bulgakov (#9). If you love Moscow like we do please check out Architecture section - #24 is about early years of Moscow metro and #25 has all the secrets of the Seven Sisters - Stalin’s Skyscrapers. The development of the science and technology throughout the century was so rapid that each decade brought something new and exciting - early orthopaedics (#29), hypnoanalysis (#31), gliding BOOKVICA 2 F O R E W O R D (#30)! Nobody wants to talk about politics so this section is at the very end of our catalogue but even there you can find gems, for example, very rare early map of Soviet Georgia (#33). We hope that we can gather again some day soon but until then we invite you to join us for the Virtual Boston Book Fair which will take place online November 12-14! Stay well and safe, Bookvica team September 2020 BOOKVICA 3 Bookvica 15 Uznadze St. 25 Sadovnicheskaya St. 0102 Tbilisi Moscow, RUSSIA GEORGIA +7 (916) 850-6497 +7 (985) 218-6937 [email protected] www.bookvica.com Globus Books 332 Balboa St. San Francisco, CA 94118 USA +1 (415) 668-4723 [email protected] www.globusbooks.com BOOKVICA 4 I WOMEN 01 [WWI FRONTLINE NOTES MADE BY THE SISTER OF MERCY] Fedorchenko, S. Narod na voine: Frontovye zapisi [i.e. The People at War: Frontline Notes]. Kiev: Izdanie Izd. podotdela Komiteta Iugo-zapadnogo fronta Vseros. Zemskogo Soiuza, 1917. 140 pp. 23x15,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Some tears and soiling of covers, the first and last pages faded, otherwise very good. First edition. Cover design and 7 vignettes were produced by artist Eugeniia Pribyl’skaia (1899-1938) who revived and developed folklore arts. Together with avant-garde artist Alexandra Exter, she held the exhibition of decorative arts in 1915. After the October Revolution, she No 01 BOOKVICA 5 Worldcat shows engaged in the production of folk toys, rugs and was attracted to the copies located in Universities of activity of experimental textile and costume workshops. Chicago and North This is the original Russian edition of notes written by Sofia Carolina. Fedorchenko (1880-1959). ‘Frontline Notes’ became a kind of diary from the perspective of the ordinary soldier and included vivid remarks of everyday life. The work was soon adapted to English, German and French. The materials were collected by Fedorchenko among ordinary soldiers between 1914 and 1917 while she was serving at the front near St Petersburg as a Sister of Mercy. She decided to write down what she remembered because she wanted to commemorate simple soldiers’ perceptions of the Great War. Her method was simple and unusual: she put together fragments of talks, sayings, conversations, and songs she had heard among soldiers in the front hospital. As Fedorchenko wrote, “I didn’t make notes <…>. It never occurred to me to write during the war. I was neither an ethnographer nor a stenographer <…>. I wrote down some fragmentary words, rather my impressions of what I saw and heard than the real words, but the meaning I kept strictly”. These stories were highly appreciated by Max Voloshin, to whom Fedorchenko came to Crimea in the 1920s. Suffering from neurasthenia, she was consulted by Mikhail Bulgakov, who was also visiting Voloshin at that time. The work became one of the early representatives of the ‘nonfiction novel’. Later it was continued by stories about the revolutionary year of 1917 and the Civil War. $950 02 [WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IN THE SOVIET EAST] Trud i byt zhenshchiny Vostoka: Materialy Vsesoiuznogo soveshсhaniya komissii po uluchsheniu byta zhenshchiny Vostoka. 11-17 ianvaria 1928 g. [i.e. Labour and Everyday Life of the Woman of the East. Materials of the All-Union Conference of Commissions for Advancing Oriental Woman’s Everyday Life. January 11-17, 1928]. Moscow: Izdanie TsIK Souza SSR, 1928. VIII, 180 pp. 22,5x15,5 cm. In original printed wrappers. Very good, small fragments of the spine lost, crease of the title page with a small tear of the lower edge and minor tears of the upper edge. Semi-erased pencil marks on the front cover and t.p., Soviet stamp of the state bookcrossing fund on verso of t.p. BOOKVICA 6 According to First and only edition. One of 1000 copies. Very rare. Worldcat, copies are located The 1920s are considered the first period of the women’s in the Library liberation movement in most Asian countries. In the Transcaucasian and of Congress, Columbia Central Asian Soviet Republics, party organizations widely promoted and Stanford the movement as a part of gender equality. Soviet propaganda urged Universities. women to be politically active and independent. Nurseries and cafeterias favored female liberation while schools and workers’ clubs increased their literacy level. In 1921 an International Women’s Day was officially marked in Soviet Republics for the first time. The First All-Union Conference of Commissions for Advancing Oriental Woman’s Everyday Life was held in the Kremlin on January 11-17, 1928. It attracted 28 delegates from provincial commissions that organized schools, workshops, juridical bureau, institutions for homeless and single mothers. Prominent Soviet feminists Clara Zetkin and Nadezhda Krupskaya participated in the event as well. The book includes 6 reports given at the Conference. Every report caused delegates’ commentaries that were printed after reports themselves. Among them were discussions on laws, political activity, women’s handicrafts. Thanks to these commentaries, the book became a valuable and comprehensive source on the process of Oriental women’s liberalization in the USSR. $950 No 02 BOOKVICA 7 03 [EARLY SOVIET FEMINIST MAGAZINE] Zhenskii zhurnal [i.e. Women Magazine] #4, 8, 10 for 1929, #6 for 1930. Overall 4 issues. Moscow: Ogonek, 1929-1930. 35x26,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Very good, rubbed edges with small tears and minor fragments of the spine lost, spots occasionally. Tear of p. 13- 14 (#4), ink note on the front cover (#10). A couple of tears along the creases of folding supplements. Covers of ‘Women Magazine’ issues were mainly designed by These issues artist Semen Semenov-Menes (1895-1982) who at the same time was are not found in Worldcat. one of the leading Soviet masters of cinema poster design. Together Other issues are with Stenberg brothers, he created the well-known style of advertising located in UC posters for Mezhrabpom films. For this magazine, he also produced the Berkeley and Monash University. drawn and photomontage designs that are close enough to propaganda posters in their nature. These issues of the early Soviet feminist magazine were devoted to a life in the newly formed socialist country. The magazine featured everyday women problems related to health, family, education and work. Challenging centuries-old traditions, the magazine urged No 03 BOOKVICA 8 No 03 women to advocate their opportunity for independent life. The articles on juridical issues, the technical and electrical enlightenment were published along with the political news. The periodical was richly illustrated with photographs by S. Fridliand, A. Shaikhet, E. Makulina, drawings by G. Saltykov, Ts. Zhanova, B. Shvarts, V. Kozlinsky, E. Lineva and others. BOOKVICA 9 A folding scheme, that was a supplement to #4 for 1928, is preserved. It was printed on a separate leaf (54x65 cm) and loosely inserted into the issue. It contains sewing patterns and ornaments for embroidery, published on both sides. ON HOLD 04 [WOMEN DURING THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD] Zhenshchiny goroda Lenina: Rasskazy i ocherki o zhenshchinakh Leningrada v dni blokady [i.e. Women of the City of Lenin. Stories and Worldcat shows Essays about Leningrad Women in Days of the Siege]. Leningrad: Lenizdat, copies located 1944. 181, [3] pp.: ill., 15 ills. 25,5x18 cm. In original full cloth with in the Library of Congress, Stanford colored lettering and design. Some foxing of plates, ink inscription on University, Harvard the verso of front flyleaf, otherwise very good. College and NYPL. First edition. Very rare wartime edition printed as soon as the blockade was lifted.