www.bookvica.com RUSSIAN BOOKS. UNDER 1000$ DECEMBER 2017 1 I RUSSIAN LITERATURE Three exemplary poetry books of Silver Age of Russian literature from the founder of the Akmeist movement. 01 Gumilev, N.S. Mik: Afrikanskaya poema [i.e. Mik: African Poem]. St. Petersburg: Giperborei, 1918. 45, [3] pp.: ill. 21,5x16 cm. In original printed wrappers. Wrappers rubbed, small fragments of the spine lost, stains on the wrappers, author’s last name on the spine (marker), owner’s signature on first two pages, Soviet bookshop’s stamps on the back cover. First edition. Scarce. Anonymous vignettes possibly designed by S. Chekhonin (1878-1936). Nikolai Gumilev (1886-1921) was an influential poet of the Silver Age, a versatile critic, translator, prose writer, and theorist of poetry. In 1918 when this book was printed Gumilev was relatively well established in the Russian literary community. He lectured at various educational institutions and served on the editorial board of Vsemirnaya Literatura, which was prominent in publishing. His students - Georgy Adamovich, Georgy Ivanov, Irina Odoyevtseva, Nikolai Otsup, Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, Nikolai Tikhonov and others - became notable creative individuals. The acmeism created by him, which attracted such great talents of the era as Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam, became quite a viable creative method. According to Dimitry Obolensky, Gumilev’s poetic oeuvre reaches its apex during the period after 1918. In 1921 Gumilev was arrested, charged as a co-conspirator in the anti-communist conspiracy known as the Tagantsev plot, and executed without trial. For several years, the Soviet establishment regarded him as a non-person. In the years after Gumilev’s death, his works and reputation fell into obscurity. Only in the mid-1980s did Soviet authorities allow the publication of Gumilev’s works. $ 350 RUSSIAN LITERATURE 2 Cover. No 01 Cover. No 02 Cover. No 03 RUSSIAN LITERATURE 3 02 Gumilev, N.S. Kostyor: Stikhi [i.e. Bonfire: Poems]. St. Petersburg: Giperborei, 1918. 46, [4] pp.: ill. 21x16 cm. In original printed wrappers. Good, internally clean copy. Wrappers rubbed, with stains and small tears of outer yapped margins, spine is repaired on the top and bottom, Soviet bookshop’s stamps on the back cover. First edition. Scarce. Headpieces by N. Kalmakov. $ 350 03 Gumilev, N.S. Kostyor: Stikhi [i.e. Bonfire: Poems]. Berlin; Petersburg; Moscow: Z.I. Grzhebin, 1922. 59, [1] pp. 14,5x11,5 cm. Second edition. In original printed wrappers. Lacking rear wrapper, erased signature on the last page, front wrapper rubbed and with small tears. Scarce. Despite his fate, Gumilev was not included in the list of persons whose works were all to be seized. In the catalog of the Library of Academy of Sciences in special depository there were only foreign editions of his poems, including this collection Kostyor. In 1919 Zinovii Grzhebin (1877-1929) founded the Publishing House of Z.I. Grzhebin, the actual head of which was Maxim Gorky. For a widely conceived publishing enterprise Grzhebin bought manuscripts of authors in large quantities. In 1920 he left for Berlin, where he founded a branch of his publishing house and published some of the manuscripts purchased earlier. However, in 1923 he was ruined and the publishing house ceased to exist. This is one of the last books of that publishing company. $ 350 04 [BANNED BOOK ON FUTURISM AND MAYAKOVSKY] Speransky, V.D. Istoriko-kriticheskie materialy po literature. Vypusk 3: Mayakovsky. Futurism [i.e. Historic and Critical Materials on Literature. Third Issue. Mayakovsky: Futurism]. Moscow: MIR, 1925. 93, [2] pp. 20x14 cm. In original wrappers. Spine is missing and repaired with paper, front cover is detached from the text block, Soviet bookshop’s label on the back cover and number in pen, unknown stamp on the title page, earlier RUSSIAN LITERATURE 4 Newspaper clipping. No 04 Cover. No 04 Cover. No 05 Mayakovsky’s portrait. No 05 RUSSIAN LITERATURE 5 Worldcat locates and contemporary newspaper clippings with Mayakovsky glued to p. 4 paper copies at Amherst College and [1], occasional pencil markings in text. Otherwise good. Library and University of North Carolina. First and only edition. One of 5000 copies. Very rare. This is a very interesting document of the avant-garde era and one of the first books on Mayakovsky. With valuable articles by L. Trotsky on futurism. In late 1920s and early 1930s after Trotsky’s expulsion books like this were withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. The remaining copies were stored in special secret depositories that were not accessible to the reader (Gorlit List of Banned Literature). Extracts from the works of many repressed literary critics are cited as well. Materials on origins of Russian futurism (mainly through marxist lense), sociological grounding of futurism, futurism and revolution, poetic techniques of Mayakovsky and his future by Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Kruchyonykh, Erenburg, Briusov, Lunacharsky, Lezhnev, Aksenov and others. Blium. Zapreshchyonnye knigi. #1112. $ 700 05 [ON MAYAKOVSKY] Polonsky, V.P. O Maiakovskom [i.e. About Mayakovsky]. Moscow; Leningrad: Ogiz, 1931. 68 pp., 1 port. 17,5x12 cm. In original prited wrappers. Very good, tear of the top of the spine. Rare. One of 3000 copies. Vyacheslav Polonsky (1886-1932), Russian critic and editor of Krasnaya Niva, Novyi Mir and other magazines, had a very interesing relationship with Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930). In February of 1927, he published an article entitled Worldcat locates ‘‘Notes of a journalist. LEF or bluff?’’ in which he criticized the LEF, who copies at Cornell, Harvard and considered themselves the only true representatives of revolutionary University of art. The reaction to the article was the debate of writers (Polonsly Notre Dame. famously was late to what Mayakovsky said ‘‘From LEF we came, but there is no one from the bluff’’). The controversy between Mayakovsky and Polonsky continued. Their debates reminded their contemporaries cat and mouse game in which Polonsky was a cat and Mayakovsky was always angry at him. Interesting that Polonsky’s first artcile and later a book of 1931 RUSSIAN LITERATURE 6 which came out after poet’s death with subtitle ‘Bloody Flap of the Heart’ largely predetermined today’s ideas about Mayakovsky. In this book Mayakovsky’s poetry Polonsky evaluated as a powerful force of hyperbolism which shook the foundations of the poetic language. $ 400 06 [MASTER OF SATIRE] Mikhail Zoshchenko: Statii i materialy [i.e. Articles and Other Materials]. Leningrad: Academia, 1928. 94 pp. 18x13 cm. In original wrappers and dustwrappers with same portrait by N.E. Radlov. Tears and losses of fragments of the spine of both wrappers, text block is detached from the wrappers. Otherwise good and internally clean. First edition. One of 5000 copies. Scarce. First book in the series ‘‘Masters of Modern Literature’’ edited by B. Kazansky and Y. Tynianov. Includes bibliography, ‘‘Zoshchenko’s Language’’ by V. Vinogradov, ‘‘Ways of Zoshenko’’ by A. Barmin, ‘‘About Zoshcheko and Big Literature’’ by Shklovsky, and Zoshchenko’s short essay about himself, his critics and work. This book was banned (Babel’, Pil’nyak and Kol’tsov who were considered enemies of the state were mentioned in the book). It should also be taken into account that at that time the very name of Zoshchenko looked odious in the eyes of Glavlit officials. The writer was subjected to constant censorship attacks, beginning in 1923. For example two books he created in close cooperation with the satirical artist and art critic N. Radlov (1889-1942) were arrested for drawings and signatures under them. Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (1894-1958) was a Soviet author and satirist. He always very sharply noticed not only the funny in the ordinary, but also the changes of time - he felt them. The stories of Mikhail Zoshchenko of the 1920s were adored by emigration - and this was alarmed by the party leadership. As often happens, good satire usually leads to bad: for many years Zoshchenko was in disgrace and earned an anonymous life of translations and shoe repair. He was awarded his pension only a few months before he died. Blium. Zapreshchyonnye russkie knigi. #1100. $ 600 RUSSIAN LITERATURE 7 Cover. No 06 No 07 RUSSIAN LITERATURE 8 07 [BULGAKOV’S PLAY] [Theatre Program] Mikhail Bulgakov. Dni Turbunykh [i.e. The Days of the Turbins]. [Moscow. The Moscow Art Theatre. Season 1939-1940]. [4] pp. 20x14 cm (folded). With creases, foxing, generally rubbed. Very rare. One of 5000 copies. The Days of the Turbins’ premiered on 5 October 1926 in Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, co-directed by Ilya Sudakov (1890-1969). The cast included Nikolai Khmelyov as Alexey Turbin, Ivan Kudryavtsev as Nikolka, Vera Sokolova as Elena, Mark Prudkin as Shervinsky (his song has been performed for several years by the Bolshoi opera singer Pyotr Selivanov), Evgeny Kaluzhsky as Studzinsky, Boris Dobronravov as Myshlayevsky, Vsevolod Verbitsky as Talberg, Mikhail Yanshin as Lariosik, Viktor Stanitsyn as Von Shratt, Robert Schilling as Von Dust, Vladimir Ershov as Getman, Nikolai Titushin as the deserter, Alexander Anders as Bolbotun, Mikhail Kedrov as Maxim. The Days of the Turbins enjoyed enormous success. Bulgakov’s secretary I.S. Raaben (who typed the novel The White Guard and who was invited to the theatre by Bulgakov personally), remembered: ‘‘That was astounding. All these things were still very much alive in the people’s memories. There were fits of hysteria, people fainted, seven people were driven away by ambulance, for there were lots of people in the audience who’d come through the Petlyura horrors, and all those Civil War hardships’’. The publicist Ivan Solonevich remembered an episode, with the White Army officers on stage after having drank some vodka, were supposed sing the anthem «God Save the Tsar!» in a ramshackle, disheartened manner. «Then something inexplicable happened. The whole audience started to rise to their feet.