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32 Saint George Street London W1S 2EA +44 20 7493 0876 [email protected] www.shapero.com From legends of ancient Rus’ to the politically charged texts of the Soviet era, this catalogue spans the broad range of the rich tapestry that is Russian literature. Authors from across the chronological spectrum were faced with censorship and suppression but this did not quell the enthusiasm with which they were received. Despite huge contrasts in style they are united by their celebration of Russian language and their defiant dedication to revealing the truth of human nature. Read, translated and loved by so many across the world these works offer a unique philosophical and at times truly radical approach to writing. 1. AKHMATOVA, Anna. Стихотворения. Stikhotvorenia. 2. AKHMATOVA, A n n a . Anno Domini MCMXXI. [Poems]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo khudozhestvennoi St Petersburg, Petropolis, 1921. literatury, 1958. £850 [ref: 99773] [ref: 100668] £350 Very attractive copy of the first edition of Akhmatova’s fourth collection. Lifetime edition of a collection of poems written between 1909 and 1945 - the first of Akhmatova’s works to be published after Anno domini MCMXXI presents 23 new poems from this fertile the death of Stalin but still heavily censored. era in her creative life, together with the re-issue of Podorozhnik, Akhmatova (1889-1966) was one of the legendary figures of which had initially been published in 1921. Many of the poems modern Russian poetry. Her life was one of great achievement concern Akhmatova’s husbands Gumilev and Shileiko: she felt and great loss. Her first husband, Nikolay Gumilev, was somehow responsible for Gumilev’s death (he was executed executed, her second husband, Nikolay Punin, died in the Gulag in 1921), and she mourned him for years, in spite of the fact and her son Lev was also sent to the labour camps. Being one that their relationship quickly proved untenable subsequent of her country’s great lyric poets, she wrote first hand and to their marriage in 1910. The volume marks the dawn movingly about Stalin’s terror. While fellow poets and artists of Akhmatova’s special poetic strategy of mythologizing her own autobiography, which would later come to fruition adored her, she was spied on by the state and finally expelled , Poem bez geroya. from the Union of Soviet Writers. She survived to become in her summa one of the century’s most eloquent witnesses to the Soviet First edition; 24to (12. 3 x 9.3 cm); 102pp.; original wrappers in blue nightmare and was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in 1965. and black, designed by Dobuzhinsky; ex-libris to inner cover, small 8vo (17 x 11.5 cm); 132 pp., with errata slip bound in at end, original repairs; in a modern blue cloth sleeve and box with white label maroon cloth, gilt ruled and lettering to upper cover; very slightly to spine; a fine copy. Kilgour 5. rubbed at the spine extremities and upper corners.

Shapero Rare Books 3 3. AKHMATOVA, Anna. Из шести книг. Iz shesti knig. 4. AKHMATOVA, Anna. У самого моря. U samogo moria. [From Six Books.] Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel’, 1940. [At the very edge of the sea]. St Petersburg, Alkonost, 1921 [ref: 96647] . £600 £950 [ref: 96970] First edition published in 1940 after 18 years of suppressed publication by the state. First separate printing of a poem that first appeared in a 1915 issue of the magazine Apollon. Every summer Akhmatova From Six Books was the first work Akhmatova was allowed to travelled from Tsarskoe Selo with her family to their dacha publish in eighteen years. It comprises six works: Iva [Willow], on the Crimean coast. It was here that the poet gained Anno Domini, Podrozhnik [Plantain], Belaia Staia [White Flock], a reputation for being a ‘wild girl’ as she would walk around Chetki [Rosary] and Vecher [Evening]. She was expelled from barefoot, refuse to wear a sun hat, swim in the sea during the Union of Soviet Writers in 1946 and her next major a storm, dive off boats and burn her skin until it all peeled off. collection, The Flight of Time, did not appear until 1965. In this time between publication dates, Akhmatova was treated as an At the very edge of the sea was written in 1914 at a time enemy of the people, not being imprisoned herself she had to when Akhmatova was influenced by Blok’sItalian Poems which witness all her loved ones being sent to the Gulag, executed had been published in ‘Russkaya Mysyl’. The sentiment was or committing suicide. reciprocated and Blok wrote to her saying that thanks to her ‘he felt he loved poetry again’. The work was a farewell to the First edition; 12mo (11.5 x 14 cm); 327pp., title-page, frontispiece careless pleasures of youth and its romantic daydreams, by the portrait of Akhmatova by Nikolai Tirsa; bound with grey cloth with time it was issued as a book Akhmatova had however grown original upper wrapper panel cover mounted on the front, slight into the deeply tragic poet we now celebrate. wear to spine and corners, otherwise very good. First separate edition; 12mo (16.5 x 12.4 cm); 32, [4] pp. advertisements to rear; publisher’s printed wrappers, covers chipped, mild soiling but still bright, wrappers skilfully reattached to text block.

4 Shapero Rare Books sc arce first edition first edition of a prolific Silver Age work 5. AKHMATOVA, Anna. Четки. Стихи. Chetki. Stikhi. 6. ANDREEV, Leonid; LANCERAY, Eugene (illustrator). [Rosary. Poems]. St Petersburg, Giperborei, 1914. Цар Голод. Представление в пяти картинах с прологом.

£5,000 [ref: 99386] Tsar Golod. Predstavlenie v piati kartinakh s prologom. [King Hunger. A play in five scenes with a prologue]. St Petersburg, Akhmatova’s second collection of poems - one of her most Shipovnik, 1908. popular works. £750 [ref: 99388] The publication of Chetki [Rosary] in March of 1914 was a great success for Akhmatova and cemented her position Leonid Andreev (1871 -1919) was a playwright, novelist as one of the leading writers of the time. Her poems were and short story writer who was a leading figure of Russian lauded to such an extent, many women started to write Expressionism. His first collection of stories published in 1901 poetry ‘in honour of Akhmatova’. Her aristocratic background quickly sold over a quarter of a million copies and henceforth and striking looks propelled her into the public sphere his career as a writer was established. An active participant and after the tragic events later in her life, the poet would in social and political debate, many of his writings including Tsar Golod reflect upon these years as a joyful time. draw on the revolutionary events of contemporary Russia. After initially supporting the Bolsheviks and the This second collection of poems was so well received February Revolution of 1917 he predicted a catastrophic perhaps in part due to the directness of her language which outcome and died embittered and impoverished in 1919. was characteristic of her Acemist style. Avoiding excessive Andreev’s work was translated into English and published symbolic imagery she appealed to her readership with her in America throughout the 1920s. shrewd and sensitive observations, however, her poetry was not well-received by everyone. The text contributed to her Eugene Lanceray, was a member of Mir Isskustva and nephew ex-communication in 1946 by Stalin’s cultural minister Andrey of Leon Benois and Alexandre Benois. Zhdanov, who famously branded her as ‘half nun, half whore, or rather both nun and whore’. First edition; 8vo (24 x 16.5 cm); 126pp., tri-fold pictorial frontispiece, six full-page pictorial section titles and a tail-piece First edition; 8vo (20.7 x 15 cm); original printed wrappers; stamp by Lanceray, preliminary leaf with device and title-page, without to corner of back cover ‘Mag 38 P.S.K.’; slight wear to spine advertisements, marbled end-papers, some age-toning; bound and edges but otherwise in excellent condition. Kilgour 3. in later half maroon morocco with marbled boards, spine in six parts with raised bands and gilt title; spine sunned and some rubbing; t.e.g. Kilgour 33.

Shapero Rare Books 5 first edition of a rare futurist work first edition in excellent condition with original wrappers 7. ASEEV, Nikolai; GURO, Elena; MAYAKOVSKIY, 8. BELIY, Andrey. Христос Воскрес. Khristos Voskres. Vladimir; PASTERNAK, Boris; PETNIKOV, Grigory; [Christ Has Risen]. St Petersburg, Alkonost, 1918. KHLEBNIKOV, Velimir. ЛИРЕНЬ. Liren’. [Lilac]. Moscow, £375 [ref: 93612] Liren’, 1920. £800 [ref: 99561] Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev, better known by the pen name Andrey Beliy (1880-1934), was a Russian poet; recognised Poetry and essays from prominent Russian writers of the early amongst his contemporaries as a major poet of the Russian 20th Century, brought together in the name of Futurist literary Symbolist Movement, it is as a critic and novelist that he left group, Liren. The wrappers were designed by Maria Sinyakova a legacy. (1890-1984), a Ukrainian artist from Kharkov who was a notable figure in the avant-garde sphere and collaborator of the futurist Christ Has Risen is a collection of narrative poems written in group. She was expelled from the Artists’ Union for ‘bowing the first few months after the Bolshevik’s revolution. It is often to Western art’. It is believed that Velimir Khlebnikov was in seen as a response to The Twelve by the Russian lyrical poet love with Sinyakova and dedicated many poems to her. Alexander Blok, which also places Christian messianic imagery onto the Russian Revolution. Like many his contemporaries, First edition; 8vo (16 x 12 cm); original printed wrappers designed Beliy initially saw the revolution as a hopeful occasion. by Maria Sinyakova; small ink stain to upper cover, slight age-toning, Stylistically, the poems resemble Vladimir Mayakovsky, in that later sleeve printed with matching design; a fine copy. Hellyer 281. it is in rhymed free verse. ‘The cruel, grotesque part devoted to the crucifixion is powerful, but Beliy’s attempt to project the Resurrection on the Bolshevik revolution is a trivial ploy to fuse Mayakovskian rhetoric with symbolist clichés’ (Terras). First edition; 12mo (15 x 11.5 cm); original wrappers printed in black and red, designed by P. Alekseev; stamp to inside back cover; a very good copy. Terras p.431.

6 Shapero Rare Books rare screenplay by Isaac Babel 9. BABEL, Isaac. Блуждающие звезды. [Bluzhdayushchye Zvezdy]. Wandering Stars. Moscow, Kinopechat’, 1926. £2,500 [ref: 77495] First edition of the film script Bluzhdayushchye Zvezdy which Babel was commissioned to write by Goskino and the Jewish Chamber Theatre, based on the Yiddish novel of the same title by Sholom Aleichem. The film never made it to production and Babel writes in his preface that ‘the novel by Aleichem was saturated with petty bourgeois motifs and had no potential in becoming a cinematic spectacle’. The writer found the text thoroughly troublesome and when the crew changed he had to alter the work as it had been undertaken and customised with specific directors and actors in mind. Cited as the greatest writer of Russian Jewry, Babel is praised for bringing to life the criminal world of Odessa as well as the horrors of the Polish-Soviet War. As was sadly the case with many leading authors and Jewish figures, false charges were brought against him during the Great Purge. He was executed in 1940 and many of his manuscripts perished with him. He was officially rehabilitated in 1954 during the Krushchev thaw and along with the support of Ilya Ehrenburg his works began to be published and lauded once again. First edition; 8vo (22 x 17 cm); 76, 3(ads)pp., pp23-36 loose, preface by Babel, three full page illustrations by Alexander Bykhovskiy, original pictorial wrappers, spine worn with some restoration, minor staining,; a good copy.

Shapero Rare Books 7 Bulgakov’s satiric al masterpiece the father of Russian Futurism 10. BULGAKOV, Mikhail. Собачье Сердце. Sobach’e 11. BURLIUK, David. Толстой, Горький, Поэмы. [Tolstoi, Serdtse. [Heart of a Dog]. Paris, YMCA Press, 1969. Gorky, Poems]. New York, Maria Nikiforovna Burliuk, 1928-9. £1,250 [ref: 99740] £475 [ref: 96650] Originally written in 1925 but not published in the Soviet David Burliuk (1882-1967) often referred to as the ‘Father Union until 1987 Heart of a Dog is one of Bulgakov’s most of Russian Futurism’ is the author of these two poems. successful early works. An absurdist tale it was banned from The first is titled The Great and Meek Bolshevik and dedicated publication but clandestinely circulated throughout the country to Tolstoy on the 100th anniversary of his birth and the second and quickly became a cultural phenomenon was written in celebration of Maksim Gorky’s 60th birthday. The plot revolves around the renowned Professor Provenance: V. Zemskov (stamp to title-page). Preobrazhensky who conducts a Faustian experiment of First edition; 8vo (22 x 15 cm); 32pp. including title-page, transplanting a man’s testicles and pituitary gland into the body with two llustrations by the author, original publisher’s wrappers, of a dog, with disastrous consequences. Heart of a Dog is widely an excellent copy. read as scathing attack on Bolshevism and the Revolution and all manuscripts and copies of the work were confiscated by the secret police, only to be returned to Bulgakov four years later after an intervention from Maxim Gorky. In 1968 Alec Flegon published a pirate edition of Heart of a Dog in issue 9/10 of his journal ‘student’. First separate Russian edition; small 8vo (18.9 x 13.3 cm); 159pp.; original printed wrappers designed by Yuiry Annenkov, frontispiece; spine slightly creased; a good copy.

8 Shapero Rare Books collection of essays compiled by David Burliuk 12. BURLIUK, David. Бука Русской литературы. Buka 13. BURNETT, frances hodgson. Маленький Лорд russkoi literatury. [The Bogeyman of Russian literature]. Фаунтлерой. [Little Lord Fauntleroy]. Moscow, Volf, 1901. Moscow, 41°, 1923. [ref: 92977] £1,250 [ref: 99389] £375 The work contains essays by Sergei Tretyakov, David Burliuk, Lovely Russian edition of this celebrated children’s book that Tatyana Tolstaya and Sergei Rafalovich in tribute to the poet tells a story of a little American boy, who discovers he is the Aleksei Kruchenykh. The title for the publication was inspired heir to an English aristocratic title and a fortune. The striking by Kruchenykh’s literary gatherings in the city of Tiflis (Tbilisi). publisher’s binding here in an unusually bright condition. Burliuk aimed to distinguish Russian Futurism as a distinct Little Lord Fauntleroy was the first children’s novel of English literary and artistic movement and these essays highlight the playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924). radical nature of the group’s writing. It was first published in book format in original English in 1886 St Nicholas There are three lithographs within the text by Gustav Klutsis following the serialisation in magazine. Its popularity and Ivan Kliun, both well-known Constructivist artists. was enormous. Polly Horvath, an American-Canadian author of novels for children, wrote that Little Lord Fauntleroy First edition; 8vo (19 x 14 cm); 44, [4](ads)pp., lithographs by ‘was the Harry Potter of his time and Frances Hodgson Burnett Klutsis and Kliun, original wrappers in black and red by Nagorskaia, was as celebrated for creating him as J.K. Rowling is for Potter’. some slight loss to front and back covers, small contemporary Russian bookseller stamps to back cover, age-toning to margins, There is little doubt that in Russia the novel was also received otherwise a very goof copy; in modern cloth backed patterned with great enthusiasm, since before 1918 it underwent at least sleeve. 13 editions. Second edition; 8vo (18.5 x 14 cm); x, 219pp.; with full page illustrations; pencil note to verso of half-title. Publisher’s red cloth heavily decorated in gilt and black, all edges gilt; upper fly-leaf defective.

Shapero Rare Books 9 anti-slavery epistolary novel adapted into Russian 14. BUTINI, Jean-François; TAUSHEV, Aleksandr on personal liberty to disturb public consciousness, the way Fedorovich (translator). Африканские письма. Aleksandr Radishev’s Journey From St. Petersburg to Moscow did [Lettres africaines]. M o s c o w , U n i v e r s i t e t s k a y a t i p o g r a fi y a , 1 8 0 1 . in 1790. Taushev explained humbly, that those letters would £2,950 [ref: 95071] interfere with the readers entertaining themselves… First edition; small 8vo (15 x 10 cm); 250 pp., including title, [2] a fine example of the first edition of the first translation pp. errata; contemporary full calf, slightly rubbed, rebacked to style printed on blue paper. with red calf label lettered in gilt. SK 1801-1825, 915; Sopikov Of the utmost rarity we could not trace any example in 8139. WorldCat and are not aware of any having appeared on the market, including in Russia. We did find however three copies in major Russian libraries (RGB, RNB and GPIBR). Originally published in French in 1771, Lettres africaines followed the tradition of sentimental novels, but also delivered a powerful abolitionist message. Jean-François Butini (1747-1805) was a Swiss magistrate who had previously written a socio-economic treatise on luxury and adapted Shakespeare’s Othello into French: these works evolved into the present novel with its dramatic narrative and humanist perspective on personal liberty and economic practicality. Unusually, the narrative is constructed from the point of view of the enslaved, through the letters of two lovers, Phédima and Abensar. The horrors of slavery are described in detail, and the idea of abolition is shown to be the way forward. In 1782 Butini served as member of the Assemblée Nationale during the Geneva Revolution – struggling to broaden the franchise and include men of modest means in the republican government of the city state. The nature of interest in Russia was quite different. After the phenomenal success of Karamzin’s Poor Lisa, a tragic sentimental story published in 1792, it is hardly surprising that the story of two lovers separated by war, betrayal and misfortune attracted Russian publishers’ attention. The translator, Aleksandr Taushev, a poet and author of odes glorifying the Tsar, countered the most frivolous expressions of love with his notes on Christian chastity. The political pathos of the novel was also somehow repressed by exclusion of two letters in which economic pros and cons of slave labour were debated. With serfdom being the economic basis of the Russian Empire, the censorship could not allow the debate

10 Shapero Rare Books presentation copy to the French ambassador to Russia first edition in excellent condition with an additional manuscript poem 15. CARROLL, Lewis [pseud. DODGSON, Charles 16. CHAPELLON, Alphonse. Reflets. Poésies 1830-1837. Lutwidge]; KALINOVSKIY, Gennadiy (illus.) Приключения Odessa, Imprimerie de la ville, 1837. Алисы в стране чудес. Сказка, рассказанная Борисом £1,500 [ref: 95242] Заходером. [Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as told to First edition of a very rare collection of verse printed in you by Boris Zakhoder]. Moscow, Detskaia Literatura, 1974. Odessa in fine contemporary binding. £825 [ref: 100678] This copy, from the library of the French Ambassador, H.E. A wonderful translation with beautiful illustrations of one of le Baron de Barante was given to him by the author himself the most popular children’s stories of all time. Zakhoder’s with a manuscript poem consisting of six stanzas of alexandrine version was hugely popular in the Soviet era and is still one of verse. Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, le Baron de Barante the standard Russian translations. As well as translating directly (1782-1866) served as French ambassador to St Petersburg from the original text, he also added new material to make it from 1835 but had to leave the country in 1842 after the easier for Russian children to understand. Zakhoder did publish two nations broke off relations. Chapellon addresses the his own works for children but he was mainly celebrated Baron directly using the informal ‘tu’ which would suggest that (and awarded the Russian state prize) for his translations which the two were close acquaintances. Winnie-the-Pooh Mary Poppins also included and . Provenance: Baron de Barante (ex-libris to upper paste down, First edition; 4to (22 x 17 cm); illustrated throughout with some author’s presentation inscription to upper fly leaf). full-page; publisher’s original pictorial boards, a very good copy. First edition; 16mo (14 x 11 cm); presentation inscription on the upper fly leaf; ‘a Monsieur le Baron de Barante, hommage respectueux de la part d’auteur, Alphonse Chapellon’, two manuscript leaves of poetry written especially for the recipient, signed and dated Odessa 1838, folded in four and bound in, censorship leaf printed in Russian, green endpapers, ex-libris of Baron de Barante on upper paste down, two small stickers on upper and lower paste downs, speckled edges; contemporary purple calf with textured finish, flat spine, gilt double bands on compartments with gilt rosette in each compartment, upper board with gilt detail including title, lower board with gilt detail, top and bottom of spine very slightly rubbed; in excellent condition.

Shapero Rare Books 11 first edition in book form of Chekhov’s final masterpiece first public ation of the Cherry Orchard 17. CHEKHOV, Anton. Вишневый Сад: Комедия в 18. CHEKHOV, Anton and others. Вишневый Сад [в] четырех дейсивиях. [The Cherry Orchard: A comedy in Сборник Товарищества ‘Знание’ за 1903 год. [The Cherry four acts]. St Petersburg, A. Marks, 1904. Orchard [in] Collection of the ‘Knowledge’ Society for the £7,500 [ref: 100355] year 1903]. St Petersburg, Isidor Goldberg, 1904. [ref: 94823] The Cherry Orchard, an enduring classic of Russian literature £2,250 was performed at Chekhov’s beloved Moscow Arts Theatre Fine copy of the complete issue of the Znanie Collection for in January 1904 under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski. the year 1903, including the first appearance of Chekhov’s The play was branded a drama by critics but despite its tragic The Cherry Orchard (part two, pp. 29-105). ending Chekhov always believed that it was a comedy and there was in fact nothing dramatic about it all. Here Chekhov neatly sidestepped earlier contractual obligations to the publisher Adolf Marks, who still published The play revolves around the vast changes Russia was a version of the play in book form that introduced a few experiencing at the turn of the century and its socio-political minor changes to the text later in 1904. Nevertheless, this was themes divided spectators. Conservatives reproached the the end of Chekhov’s connection with Marks: both playwright writer for his sympathy with the ‘new generation’ and liberals and publisher died in 1904. were unhappy with the outdated language the supposedly modern characters used. Despite the context in which This Almanac also includes Kuprin’s Mirnoe Zhitie, Gorky’s the play was written it is a fundamentally universal story of Chelovek and poems by Bunin. a faded world receding before modern realities and it remains a cornerstone of 20th century theatre around the world. First printing; two parts in 1 vol; 8vo (20.8 x 14.5 cm); contemporary black calf over green cloth boards, gilt title to spine; slightly spotted, First separate edition; 8vo (22 x 15 cm); 62pp., advertisement a very good copy. leaf at rear; original printed wrappers with art nouveau design, internally fresh, slight wear to covers with small loss to top of lower cover, spine glued; a good copy.

12 Shapero Rare Books anybody who travels to Russia will be happy to live first english translations anywhere else! 19. CHEKHOV, Anton; GARNETT, Constance 20. CUSTINE, [Astolphe], Marquis de. La Russie en (translator). The Cherry Orchard [with] Three Sisters 1839. Paris, Crapelet for librairie d’Amyot, 1843. And Other Plays by Anton Tchehov (sic) from the Russian £3,250 [ref: 84699] by Constance Garnett. London, Chatto & Windus, 1923. ‘The Tocqueville of Russia’ - beautiful example of the uncommon £550 [ref: 98776] first edition, which was followed by 18 successive editions and The other plays included are: Uncle Vanya; The Sea Gull; translations before 1855 and banned in Russia until a complete The Bear; The Proposal; Ivanov; A Swan-Song; An Unwilling Martyr; translation was published in the late XX century. The Anniversary; On The High Road; The Wedding. Astolphe Custine (1790-1857) travelled to Russia in the Constance Garnett, née Constance Clara Black, (1861-1946), summer of 1839, visiting Moscow and Yaroslavl’ before settling English translator who made the great works of Russian for a period of time in St. Petersburg. He found himself under literature available to English and American readers in the first constant observation, and therefore never sent any of the letters to friends assembled in the present volume, instead half of the 20th century. In addition to being the first to publishing them back in France on his return. The work has render Dostoyevsky and Chekhov into English, she translated received praise not only as a masterful literary creation the complete works of Turgenev and Gogol, as well as the but also as a statement of political prophesy, predicting the major works of Tolstoy. imminent rebellion of the Russian people. A royalist rather First edition of the first English translation; 2 vols; 12mo; (16 x 11 cm); than a democrat, Custine nevertheless speaks out against the vi, 273; vi, 298pp., mild offsetting to plain endpapers, else fine, absolutism of the Tsar in favour of a constitutional monarchy. publisher’s green cloth, gilt spines, blind embossed upper boards, Provenance: Stephens Lyne-Stephens (armorial bookplate spines faded, otherwise very good. to upper pastedowns with motto ‘recte et suaviter’). First edition; 4 vols; 8vo; [iv], xxxi, 354pp.; [iv], 416pp.; [iv], 470pp.; [iv], 544pp., with folding letterpress table; very light occasional spotting; contemporary English polished half-calf over marbled boards, flat spines gilt, burgundy morocco labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers and edges, preserved in a modern leather-entry slipcase. En Francais dans le texte 262; Vicaire II, 1090.

Shapero Rare Books 13 first edition in excellent condition 21. DAHL, Vladimir Ivanovich. Толковый словарь живого 22. DRUZHBIN, P. И все это правда: Ум и нравы великорусского языка. [Dictionary of the Great Russian животных. I vse eto Pravda: Um i nravy zhivotnykh. Language]. St Petersburg & Moscow, Volf, 1911 - 1914. [And It Is All Truth: Mind and Nature of Animals]. [ref: 94601] St Petersburg, Devrien, 1896. £2,750 £250 [ref: 86201] This was the most comprehensive russian language dictionary A collection of short stories for children richly illustrated in existence at the time of publication. by Fedor Shpecht and Sergey Zhivatovskiy. With the fragile Vladimir Dahl (1801-72) dedicated 53 years of his life to this publisher’s printed covers well preserved. monumental work, which contains 200,000 words and uses First edition; 8vo (22.5 x 16 cm); [iv], 261, [2] pp., with multiple 3,000 proverbs and sayings to illustrate their meaning. Dahl illustrations in text; publisher’s illustrated cover; margins slightly began collecting words for a future dictionary at the age rubbed, corners bumped. of eighteen, and passed away working on its second edition. He was awarded the Konstantinivskaya Medal and Lomosov Prize for his work, and in 1868 was elected an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The third and fourth editions were edited by Jan de Courtenay (1845-1929), one of the most influential linguists in Russia in the late XIX - early XX century, and are famous for their inclusion of several Russian swearwords. Vols. I-III fourth edition, vol. IV third edition; 4 vols, 8vo (27.2 x 19 cm), text in two columns, paginated accordingly; contemporary red calf over red cloth boards, gilt lettering to spines, red edges; slightly rubbed and sunned.

14 Shapero Rare Books first English edition of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece 23. DOSTOEVSKY, Fedor Mikhailovich. Полное 24. DOSTOEVSKY, Fedor Mikhailovich; [WHISHAW, собрание сочинений в 12 томах. С критико- Fred (translator)]. Crime and Punishment. A Russian биографическим очерком, составленным Розановым Realistic Novel. London, Vizetelly & Co., 1886. В.В. и с портретом. [The Complete Collected Works in 12 [ref: 1004 07] volumes]. St Petersburg, A.F. Marks, 1894-5. £9,000 £2,250 [ref: ww] An attractive copy of the first edition of the first translation into English of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Fine copy of this edition of the ‘complete’ works, the basis preceding the American translation by six months. All early for all editions until the Revolution and including actually Vizetelly editions of this work are uncommon and highly all works which Dostoevsky (1821-81) felt to be his best. sought-after, but this first edition is truly scarce. The present publication is the fifth issue (‘fourth edition’) Henry Richard Vizetelly (1820-94) was an interesting man; of the posthumous complete works prepared with the initially trained as an engraver (notably engraving several of co-operation of A.G. Dostoevskaya, the author’s wife; they John Leech’s first successful drawings, Paris Originals, for Bell’s include 147 letters written by Dostoevskiy to various people Life and selling sketches of the coronation of Queen Victoria to and a short, updated biography by V. Rozanov. Bell’s Life and The Observer), he became a partner in a printing & engraving business with his brother in 1841. This led to him Bound for the celebrated English writer Maurice Baring co-founding the Illustrated London News and subsequently (1874-1945). His bookplate was designed by his friend, the the Pictorial Times, followed a few years later by the Illustrated prolific writer Hilaire Belloc. The two men met in Oxford Times. Following a twelve-year sojourn in Paris, as journalist in 1897, and Belloc wrote on the ex-libris ‘Here goes a ship and ‘war correspondent’, he returned to England and developed with a cargo of books to the City of Dreams’. Interestingly, Vizetelly & Co., becoming the first English publishers of works Baring’s first significant publication related to Russia, being by various authors including Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Tolstoy and, the 1905 With the Russians in Manchuria; he also edited most [in]famously, Zola. The perceived licentiousness of these The Oxford Book of Russian. works at the time saw Vizetelly in court on several occasions, and he even enjoyed a brief period at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Provenance: Maurice Baring (bookplate). First edition of the first English translation; 8vo (18.5 x 13 cm); Fifth issue (‘fourth edition’); 12 vols; 8vo; contemporary half vellum 456pp., advertisements to verso of half-title, ownership inscription over grey boards by Birdsall & Son, Northampton, flat spine dated 1890 to front fly-leaf; contemporary straight-grain half roan, lettered in black, top edges gilt; very lightly soiled. skilfully rebacked, corners a little bumped, a good copy.

Shapero Rare Books 15 one of only 30 de-luxe copies on handmade paper with an extra suite 25. FEDORCHENKO, Sofia Zakharovna, USHAKOVA, 26. GOGOL Nikolay; Alexandre Alexeieff (illus.) N. (artist). Вот так киски. Vot Tak Kiski. [The Cats] Moscow, Diary of a Madman. London, Cresset Press, 1929. Gos. Izdatelstvo, 1928. £300 [ref: 84463] £1,800 [ref: 98968] Having been a volunteer nurse during the first World War, Gogol’s Diary of a Madman was originally written in 1835 and Sofia Fedorchenko started writing stories and tales for children is one of his most celebrated short stories. His only work to in 1924. Her popular work mainly involves animals, as in be written in the first person and in diary format, it follows the the present example. fall of protagonist, a civil servant named Propischin into insanity. Small 4to (13.4 x 17.1 cm); 8 pp., with 3 full-page illustrations Alexandre Alexieff (1901-1982) was a Russian artist who is and 2 in text; inscribed in green ink to first paper. Publisher’s most well-known for his talents as an animator, having invented printed yellow wrappers, upper wrapper lettered and decorated in the pinscreen method with his collaborator (and later wife) black, white and blue, lower wrapper lettered and with publisher’s Claire Parker. He emigrated to France after the revolution trademark; inscribed in green ink to upper wrapper, a bit soiled. in 1917 with a recommendation to Sergei Sudeikin in hand, he joined the circle of notable Russian artists living and working in the city. After studying painting, he designed costumes and sets for the Ballets Russes and quickly gained notoriety through his book illustrations. Provenance: Roger van Horne Welche (ex-libris to specimen page).

De-luxe edition, one of 30 copies on handmade paper, from a total edition of 280; 4to (27.5 x 22 cm); 21 illustrations by Alexandre Alexeieff, 11 of which are hors-texte, with an extra suite of plates, translated by Prince Mirsky; contemporary red half morocco and vellum, spine in 6 parts with raised bands, gilt detail and letting, text in English.

16 Shapero Rare Books Gogol’s famous tale illustrated by Alexandra Grinevsky 27. GOGOL, Nikolay; Alexandra Grinevsky (illustrator).Tarass Boulba. Paris, La Pléiade, 1931. £2,500 [ref: 98970] Alexandra Grinevsky (1899-1976) was the illegitimate daughter of a St Petersburg aristocrat and was consequently raised in Paris by her paternal aunt. She became an actress in 1921 for the avant-garde Pitoeff Theatre where she met the artist and set designer Alexandre Alexeieff. Konstantin Stanivlavski was enamoured by Grinevskiy when he saw her performing on a visit to Paris, so much so that he wanted to take her back to Russia with him but decided to stay in France with Alexeieff and the pair married in 1923. After the birth of their daughter, Grinevsky gave up her life as an actress and became a successful artist and book illustrator.

First edition, one of 99 copies; folio (33.5 x 26 cm); 25 (including title) colour etchings with an extra suite of 11 (two of which are numbered and dated by the artist, un-cut and wide-margined copy; later half morocco with original green wrappers bound in, block loosened and edges slightly bumped; text in French, translated by Jarl Priel.

Shapero Rare Books 17 Chagall’s first illustrations for Vollard – signed by the artist 28. GOGOL, Nicolai; CHAGALL, Marc. Les âmes mortes. Traduction de Henri Mongault. Paris, Tériade, 1948. £37,500 [ref: 99647]

Gogol’s masterpiece Dead Souls, the first major book entirely illustrated by Chagall and his first illustrations for Vollard. Written over five years at the end of the long pilgrimage that brought Gogol to Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, Dead Souls offers a vivid and ruthless portrait of a small swindler in provincial Russia in 1820. Published for the first time in 1842, the novel went on to exert a huge influence over the development of Russian literature. In 1923 the French publisher Ambroise Vollard asked Chagall to produce an illustrated edition. Chagall, who had always felt a strong emotional connection to the country where he spent his youth, agreed with enthusiasm and pursued the project between 1923 and 1927. However, like many other Vollard projects, the production of the work was interrupted and only completed years later. The final plate presents a particularly curious image in which Gogol reads and Chagall paints a portrait of Vollard.

Limited edition, number 235 of an edition limited to 368 copies; 2 vols, folio ( 38 x 28 cm); [iv], 160, [4]pp.; [viii], 165-308, [12] pp. 118 original plates (of which 96 hors texte, 11 headlines and initials, 11 engraved); on Arches wove paper watermarked; signed in ink by artist on justification page and also in pencil on title page with date and place ( 26/5/1981, St Paul de Vence), minor spotting on title-page on vol. II, three plates in vol. II with some very slight browning; all loose as issued in publisher’s printed cream coloured wrappers, with cream coloured chemises and housed in matching slipcase; overall a very good copy.

18 Shapero Rare Books Shapero Rare Books 19 complete works of one of Russia’s most celebrated sc arce first edition of the first part of Gorky’s Golden Age authors autobiography 29. GONCHAROV, I va n A l e k s a n d rov i c h . Полное 30. GORKY, Maxim [pseudonym of Alexei Peshkov]. собрание сочинений. [Complete works]. St Petersburg, Детство. Detstvo. [My Childhood]. Berlin, J. Ladyschnikow, 1914. Marks, 1899. £500 [ref: 99569] £650 [ref: 86872] Born in 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod, Maxim Gorky was Fine set comprising works by one of the greatest Russian orphaned at the age of eleven and was largely raised by his novelists. This edition, published shortly after his death (1891), grandparents. It was clearly not a happy childhood as he ran includes two of the best known Goncharov’s novels - Oblomov away from home at the age of twelve, attempted to commit and Frigate Pallada. suicide at 19 and then spent much of his youth travelling on Twelve parts in 6 vols, 8vo (19.8 x 14 cm); with engraved portrait foot across Russia. An edition of The Spectator published in and facsimile; upper margins of title and half-title of vol. III restored; 1916 included translated excerpts of Gorky’s biographical contemporary green half calf, boards stamped in blind, spine with tale with the comments ‘from the first chapter...there is little raised bands with gilt lettering, initials ‘E.B.’ in gilt on lower spines; but a record of suffering, unkindness, cruelty and brutality’. slightly rubbed. The oppressive horrors of the writer’s youth only fueled Gorky’s political activism as he believed it was possible for the Russian nation to ‘look forward to our regeneration, to the time when we shall all live peacefully and humanely’. First edition; 8vo (21.5 x 15 cm); original printed wrappers, preliminary leaf with device loose, browning with some fraying, spine sunned. Kilgour 48.

20 Shapero Rare Books first edition of the third part of Gorky’s Gorky’s first play - shortly banned by tsarist autobiography censors after its debut 31. GORKY, Maxim [pseudonym of Alexei Peshkov]. 32. GORKY, Maxim [pseudonym of Alexei Peshkov]. Мои Университеты. Moi Universitety. [My Universities]. Мещане. Сцены в доме Безсеменова. Драматический Berlin, Kniga, 1923. эскиз в 4 актах. [Philistines. Scenes from the House of £500 [ref: 99567] Bessemenov. A dramatic study in 4 acts]. St Petersburg, Znanie, 1902. Covering the years from 1884 to 1888 Gorky details the lives £450 [ref: 99566] of Russia’s lower strata of society. These formative years of his youth were the impetus for his advocacy of social and Written in a naturalistic style the play was performed at political change. By 1889 he was openly associating himself Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theatre and caused a furore thanks with the Marxist social democratic movement and he openly to its social and political insinuations. With Chekhov’s wife Olga criticised the Tsarist regime. His political activities meant Knipper in the cast and a heavy police presence at the theatre he was forced into exile in Capri. Although he was granted in on its opening night in St Petersburg, Gorky’s controversial play the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs he attracted a lot of attention. returned to Europe in 1921 and settled in Berlin. It was here that he managed to continue his writing and many of his works 8vo (20.5 x 14.5 cm); 172pp. [32] pp. of advertisements; original were published. printed wrapper bound in contemporary quarter leather and black boards with detail to corners on upper cover; spine First edition; 8vo (21.5 x 14.5 cm) original printed wrappers with rubbed, contemporary Russian bookseller stamp to title-page. printed label, some minor spotting and staining, small repairs to spine; a fine copy.

Shapero Rare Books 21 first edition of the second part of The Golden Calf 33. ILF a n d PETROV [ILF, I lya & PETROV, E vg e n y ]. 34. KOCK, Charles Paul de. Монфермельская молочница. Новыя похождения Остапа Бендера: Книга вторая [La laitière de Montfermeil]. St Petersburg, Pluchart, 1832. романа «Золотой теленок». [New Adventures of Ostap £1,250 [ref: 94974] Bender: Second part of the novel ‘The Golden Calf’]. Riga, Zhizn i kultura, 1931. First Russian edition of this popular novel by the favourite £1,500 [ref: 95028] author of the 19th-century bourgeoisie.

Rare first edition of the second part of Ilf and Petrov’s beloved Charles Paul de Kock (1794-1871) was a prolific French masterpiece of Soviet satire, The Golden Calf, published by novelist who wrote about 100 titles, many of them depicting an émigré publishing house in Riga. the life of lower and middle-class Parisians. Kock’s novels were extremely popular both at home and abroad, even though The first part of the novel was published the same year many of his contemporaries as well as later readers admitted by another émigré publisher based in Berlin. When this that they were ‘rather vulgar, but not immoral, demanding Riga edition came out the authors were still working on no literary training and gratifying no delicate taste’ (New the concluding chapters of the novel. The text here leaves International Encyclopedia, 1905). the reader unaware that the final meeting of Ostap Bender and the ‘clandestine millionaire’ Koreiko would lead to Kock’s novels found considerable success with the Russian ‘The Great Combinator’ finally acquiring a long-desired million bourgeoisie and middle class, who were fascinated with rubbles before losing everything in his failed attempt to flee everything French. Belinskiy and Nekrasov wrote multiple the Soviet State via the Romanian border. reviews of his works; Dostoevskiy mentioned Koch Along with Zamiatin’s My and Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, on multiple occasions in his own novels; Varvara Lavretskaya, The Golden Calf (and its prequel, The Twelve Chairs) stand the main character of the Turgenev’s novel Dvorianskoe Gnezdo among the most important and popular Russian satirical novels [The Nest of the Gentry] and a great lover of popular French of the twentieth century. Together, Ilf and Petrov created the literature, preferred de Kock to all other writers. character Ostap Bender, a picaresque rogue con man whose First Russian edition; small 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm); five parts in 2 vols; witty pronouncements were so popular that they are still casually quoted in everyday conversation to this day. all parts with own half-titles and titles; occasional spotting, light marginal waterstain to several ll. in V part. Contemporary brown First edition; 8vo (20.5 x 14.6 cm); original pictorial wrappers; calf, gilt spines, initials ‘A.M.’ in gilt to lower spines, gilt edges; upper soiling, small marginal tears, lower spine chipped. Not in Savine. cover of vol. one partly split, lower spine of vol.II slightly chipped, traces of removed exlibrises on upper pastedowns.

22 Shapero Rare Books masterpiece of Russian avant-garde 35. KRUCHENYKH, Alexey; ZDANEVICH, Kirill. First edition; 4to (23.5 x 18.5 cm); illustrated with 26 lithographs Учитесь Худоги! Стихи А. Крученных. Картини Кирилла (rectos only), including 16 full-page illustrations; original paper Зданевич. Uchites Khudogi! Stikhi A. Kruchenykh. Kartini wrappers with lithographed manuscript text and illustration Kirilla Zdanevicha. Tiflis, Self published, 1917. mounted to upper cover; split along the spine skillfully restored, £8,500 [ref: 100422] some leaves repaired along the gutter, staples renewed, internally very fresh. Gerald Janecek, Zaum/The Transrational Poetry only edition of this beautiful production of the Russian of Russian Futurism, San Diego State University Press, 1996; avant-garde, published by two of its most important MoMa 152. representatives, in the year of the Russian revolution, during their fertile stay in Tbilisi Mostly illustrated by Zdanevich (1892-1969) with many striking full-page compositions, Uchites Khudogi is considered to be his masterpiece, and a successful collaboration with Kruchenykh (1886-1969) where ‘boundaries between text and illustrations are blurred by the introduction of pictorial elements into some of texts and verbiage or graphemes into some of illustrations’ (Janecek, p.228). Indeed, as Janecek underlines clearly in his MoMA essay (MoMA, p. 45 and illustrations p.46), some of the artists’ illustrations mix letters and drawings, metamorphosing letters into abstract compositions (by Kruchenykh himself), or into figurative drawings (by Zdanevich). Kruchenykh’s eight poems are here fully lithographed, allowing him to transform the classic typography into a new designs, using handwritten styles and exaggerating size and meanings. This effect is reinforced by the size of the book itself, larger than the more usual octavos. Its strong cover, also lithographed, incorporates a black rectangle filling half the page, referencing clearly to Malevich’s provocative Black Square. The title’s translation is challenging, as khudogi opens several possibilities: it is indeed a derogatory variation of the word khudozhniki [artists], highlights an association with another word, khudoy [thin, weak, poor]. Interestingly, the last page lists books to be, and already, published by the so-called ‘duo of three idiots’, Kruchenykh and both Zdanevich brothers (Ilya and Kirill). This page, also printed in innovative handwritten lithography, still draws on the centuries-long tradition of publishers’ catalogues.

A very good, fresh example of this rare artistic work: approximately 250 copies were printed. Provenance: L.I. Fedorov (booklabel inside upper wrapper).

Shapero Rare Books 23 36. KrYlOV, i VA n A n d r e e V i c H . Басни русские: извлеченные из собрания И. А. Крылова с подражанием на французском и итальянском языках разными авторами. [Russian Fables by A.I. Krylov with parallel translation into French and Italian by different authors]. Paris, Didot for Bossange, Le Duc d’Orléans, 1825. £8,000 [ref: 91258] a fresh exampLe with wide margins of this edition comprising 86 originaL fabLes of the ‘russian La fontaine’ accompanied by the transLations into itaLian and french that were prepared by more than eighty Litterateurs. The original idea to publish a selection of Krylov’s fables with translations into European languages belonged to Anna Ivanovna Orlova - the wife of the Privy Councillor, Count Grigoriy Vladimirovich Orlov. During her trip around Italy she collected translations of the Ivan Andreevich’s fables by the most outstanding poets of the country. Later in the Orlovs’ Paris salon Grigoriy Vladimirovich organised the preparation of the multilingual edition of the fables. The list of the French translators even included the name of the famous author of La Marseillaise, Rouget de Lisle. This edition stands out with its superb typographical production. Francois Didot, one of Paris’s best typographers, ordered Cyrillic type especially for this publication. Illustrations of the fables were engraved by Sh. Beye and Ken. According to Vereshchagin ‘the book is rare’, since most copies were sold in Paris following its publication and very few were actually brought to Russia. Provenance: Contemporary inscription on a paper, pasted on upper pastedown by a ‘close friend of Bourdeloy de Bourbon, one of the translators of the fables’; above is pasted a cut-out from a newspaper with an obituary reporting Krylov’s funeral (1844). 2 vols; 8vo (20.9 x 13.4 cm); 5 engraved plates, occasional spotting and offsetting from plates; contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, green morocco labels to spine, compartments gilt ruled; minor restoration to spines; half-title, titles in Russian and French, engraved frontispiece, lxi, 245, [3] pp.; half-title, titles in Russian and French, 378, [3] pp., a copy. Fekula 4857 (‘Rare’ and illustrated; lacking a plate); Smirnov-Sok. 790; Vereshchagin 414.

24 Shapero Rare Books first edition of this wonderful illustrated tale by first public ation of Krylov’s fable Kuprin 37. KRYLOV, Ivan Andreevich; GRECH, Nikolay 38. KUPRIN, Aleksandr Ivanovich and Ivan Mazolevskiy (editor). Рыбьи Пляски [в] Сын отечества: исторический, (illist.) Воробьиный Царь. [King of Sparrows]. Berlin, политический и литературный журнал, Номер XXVII. [The ‘Grani’, Feilchenfeld’s Buch-, Druck- und Verlagshandlung, 1922. Dances of the Fish [in] The Son of the Fatherland: Historical, £350 [ref: 77952] Political and Literary Journal, No. XXVII]. St Petersburg, Grech, 1824. Although little-known in the Western world Aleksandr Kuprin £850 [ref: 84326] (1870-1938) was, and still is, a popular Russian writer, praised by his contemporaries including Gorky and Chekhov. Nabokov Published in an influential periodical, this, the first publication called him the Russian Kipling. After the revolution of 1917 he of Krylov’s fable, was corrected by the author himself. a fresh left his homeland and became an émigré in Paris, where he example. would live in poverty for 20 years before returning to Russia. The work appears on pp. 33-35 with the following note: ‘This fable was printed in Sorevnovatel’ prosvesheniya, No. 7 Ivan Mozalevski (1890-1975) is a well-known Ukrainian artist of this year, with admissions and mistakes. It is found here with and illustrator. In the 1920s he lived in Berlin where he worked corrections, according to the wishes of the esteemed author. Ed.’ on illustrations for The Brave Tin Soldier by H.C. Anderson, Player by Dostoyevsky and other books. His work can The Son of the Fatherland was established by Nikolai Grech be found in the collections of the Art Museum of Simferopol in St. Petersburg in September 1812. Defending liberal views in its first decade, it became a leading intellectual and highly and in the Kiev State Museum of Ukrainian Art. influential journal of the Golden Age until its closure 40 years First edition; 4to (23 x 180 cm), 24pp.; illustrated throughout later. As well as a wide range of literary works and news, this by Mozalevski; publisher’s decorative stiff grey wrappers, printed specific issue is also devoted to the latest sensational scientific in green, stapled, some creasing to edges, spine rubbed, a couple discovery of the time: the deciphering of Ancient Egyptian of short clean tears, still a very good copy of this fragile item. hieroglyphs by the French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion (1790 – 1832). Provenance: Pskovskaya dukhovnaya seminariya [Pskov Seminary] (stamp at beginning and end, paper shelf labels to spine). Twelve issues (XXVII to XXXVIII) two parts (No. 95-96) in 1 volume; 8vo (18 x 12 cm); 335(including title), [1](table of contents); 288pp.; very occasional light spotting; contemporary calf-backed marble boards, flat spine lettered in gilt; extremities slightly rubbed.

Shapero Rare Books 25 fine copy of the first public ation of Kuprin’s most rare hand-coloured example of Kuzmin’s only famous work children’s book 39. KUPRIN, Alexandr and others. Поединок [в] 40. KUZMIN, Mikhail Alekseevich; TUROVA, Ekaterina Сборникe Товарищества ‘Знание’ за 1905 год. Книга (illustrator). Двум. Dvum. [For Two]. Petrograd, Segodnia, 6. [The Duel [in] Almanach ‘Znanie’ for 1905. Book 6]. 1919. St Petersburg Montvid, 1905. £1,750 [ref: 87841] £1,250 [ref: 83606] One of 125 hand-coloured copies, with an additional vignette The novel describes the events leading up to the duel by Turova not in the regular edition. Kuzmin was one of Russia’s between young officer Romashkov and a higher ranked leading Symbolist poets and a pioneer in modern homoerotic officer, due to Romashkov’s affair with the latter’s wife. literature. One of the two poems was dedicated to Lili Brik The novel touches on several recurring themes of 19th and (’L. Iu. B.’ or ‘love’), Vladimir Mayakovsky’s mistress. Segodnia early 20th century Russian realist fiction. Namely, Kuprin (Today) was the world’s first avant-garde children’s book highlights the stifling atmosphere of military life in provincial publisher, formed by a brief artist’s collective of the same Russia, the fraught relationship between individual ideals and name who met in Vera Ermolaeva’s apartment until she was collective compromises, and ultimately the meaning and value appointed rector of the Art Academy in Vitebsk. of human life when confronted with the pettiness of everyday experiences. The Duel was highly praised by critics soon after Limited edition, one of 125 hand-coloured copies, from a total its publication in 1905. During the same year of the publication, edition of 1000; small 8vo (20.5 x 15.3 cm), 4 pp., vignette in Russia lost the war to Japan, which made the majority of critics the text by Turova, owenership inscription in red ink to verso perceive Kuprin’s work in this context due to its critique of of upper cover, dated 1921, small bookseller’s stamps to recto Russian military ideals. Tolstoy commented: ‘I should better not of lower cover; publisher’s wrappers with hand-coloured linocut have read it. Very hard’. by Turova, printer’s stamp designed by Vera Ermolaeva; back wrapper partially detached at spine but holding, light soiling Provenance: D.E. (gilt Cyrillics letters to spine foot); Suren Melik- and slightly tanned. MoMA 258; Borovkov p 151, Rozanov Stepanyan (library label to upper pastedown, stamp to title page). №3130, Lesman №1218, Rats №65. First publication; 8vo (21 x 15 cm); title, contents, 320 pp., [2] (Duel takes pp. 1-288); ink mark to title page, some marginalia; contemporary half cloth binding over marbled boards, flat spine with gilt lettering; covers and hinges slightly rubbed. Terras 474.

26 Shapero Rare Books signed by the translators and publisher the first edition of Mandelstam’s second book of poems 41. L OMO N O S OV, M i kha i l V a s i l i e v i c h , 42. MANDELSTAM, Osip. Tristia. St Petersburg and Berlin, TREDIAKOVSKIY, Vasiliy Kirillovich; SUMAROKOV, Petropolis, 1922. Alexander Petrovich. Choix des meilleurs morceaux de £1,750 [ref: 99774] la littérature russe, à dater de sa naissance jusqu’au règne de Tristia Catherine II; traduit en français par M. L. Pappa do Poulo et A fine copy. Written between 1915 and 1922, established the poet as one of the most important Russian par le c[itoy]en Gallet. Paris, Pilardeau for Lefort, 1800. voices of his generation. Mandelshtam (1891-1938) opposed £950 [ref: 87220] the increasingly totalitarian Stalin’s regime, criticising authorities in his poems. He was arrested twice for ‘counter-revolutionary’ The very first anthology of Russian literature in French. activities and died in the Gulag Archipelago. He is revered An extensive preface details the translators’ aims and explains today as one of the best modern Russian poets and a martyr their literary choices. Presenting a collection of classic Russian to Stalin’s oppression. The title is taken from Ovid’s book of works to the French public for the first time, they wish the same name and the elegy reflects on the parting between to show the extent and the quality of Russian literature, the narrator and his home, city and possibly country. which ‘n’est pas au point de dégradation où on la croit’. The First edition; 8vo (16 x 12 cm); slight foxing throughout, original volume comprises a poem on the Strelitzes by Trediakovskiy, printed wrappers designed by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and dated ‘le premier poète russe’, some odes by Lomonosov and his 1921, age-toning to wrapper and wear to top of back cover, important epic on Peter the Great, and Sumarokov’s tragedy otherwise a very good copy, modern brown cloth box with red Dmitrii the Pretender as well as one of his comedies, The Usurer. morocco label to spine. The work was translated by Manuel Leonard Pappa Do Poulo and Pierre Gallet. First edition; 8vo (20 x 13 cm); signed by publisher and translators; contemporary tree sheep, gilt borders to covers, flat spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, red speckled edges, green silk bookmark; corners bumped and a bit worn, covers with small areas of abrasion neatly repaired.

Shapero Rare Books 27 masterpiece of French XVIII century literature 43. MONTESQUIEU, Charles Louis de. Письма персидския. С францускаго языка перевел кол. сов. Ефим Рознотовский. [Lettres persanes.] [Persian Letters. Translated from French by the Collegiate Councillor Efim Roznotovskii]. St Peterburg, Shnor, 1792. £3,750 [ref: 93899]

An early Russian translation. Completed in 1721, this important piece of French literature recounts in 161 letters the experiences of two Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, as they travel through France between 1712 and 1720. The two protagonists write to friends and mullahs commenting on numerous aspects of western Christian society, particularly French politics and the Moors, ending with a biting satire of the system of John Law. The work therefore provides a subtle critique of the Ancien Régime, disguised as the observations of naive foreigners. Lettres persanes was an immediate success and has since been frequently imitated. In Russia the text circulated widely among the upper classes, but it was available only in the original French or in other western European languages. The first Russian translation, by Fiodor Pospelov, was published in 1789 (without any illustrations). This was followed closely by the present edition, with the text newly translated by the retired collegiate councillor Efim Roznotovskiy (1737-1792).

Very rare. WorldCat locates only two copies, in the libraries of Harvard and Cambridge Universities. Two parts in 1 vol; small 8vo (19 x 11.5 cm).; title with portrait of Montesquieu engraved by I.K. Nabholz, 563pp., some small marginal repairs, small loss of text (1-2 letters) partly restored in contemporary writing on pp131-132, 134, 511-514, corners of pp497-498 and 563-564 torn off not affecting text, occasional contemporary inscriptions, one in different hand from 1935 to upper fly leaf; contemporary calf, black and red morocco label to spine lettered in blind; rubbed, block shaken but holding. Sopikov 6303; Rodossky 632; Svodnyi Katalog XVIII 4334.

28 Shapero Rare Books covers designed by Alexander Rodchenko the last novel Nabokov wrote in Russian 44. MANDELSTAM, Osip. Камень. Kamen’. [Stone]. 45. NABOKOV, V l a d i m i r . Дар. [The Gift]. New York, Moscow & St Petersburg, Gosizdat, 1923. Chekhov Publishing House, 1952. £600 [ref: 99775] £500 [ref: 97305]

Osip Mandelstam’s first work and an important piece of 20th One of the highlights of Nabakov’s literary career. Written in century Russian literature, here with a striking Constructivist the 1930s while Nabokov was living in Berlin, the fourth chapter wrapper design. Poems included in this work were written (a pseudo-biography of the Russian writer Chernyshevsky), by Mandelstam in his formative years and are one of the first was censored from publication in the Russian émigré journal examples in Russian literature of a style which prioritised ‘Sovremennye Zapiski’. As The Gift was to be the author’s organic and direct expression of thoughts and feelings rather last novel written in his native language it is considered to be than symbolism. The title of the work is prophetic of its a farewell to the world he was leaving behind and an ode to importance in Russian literature and the monument it became the greats of Russian literature. Each chapter follows the style to poetic creativity. of a Russian author, including Pushkin, Gogol and Saltykov-Schedrin. 8vo (18.5 x 13.5 cm); original two-tone printed wrappers desgned First complete edition in Russian, 8vo (21.4 x 14 cm); 411pp., by Rodchenko, two small ink inscriptions to title, very slight spotting, publisher’s printed wrappers, spine darkened, a few short tears tear to front cover restored, slight wear to edges; a good copy. or creases, cloth folding case. Juliar A17.1.

Shapero Rare Books 29 46. NAKHIMOV, Akim Nikolaevich. Сочинения в стихах 47. NEKRASOV, N i ko l ay A l e k s e e v i c h . Последния и прозе. [Works in Verse and Prose]. Kharkiv, Universitet. tip., песни. Стихотворения. [Last Songs. Poems]. St Peterburg, A.A. 1815. Kraevskiy for F. Viktorova, 1877. £2,950 [ref: 93240] £475 [ref: 77761]

Very rare first edition of the only book by the ‘Ukrainian Fresh copy of a collection published just before the death Krylov’. Not in WorldCat or Copac. of the celebrated poet and publisher of Sovremennik. Combining poetry published in earlier magazines with new creations, Akim Nakhimov (1782-1814) was born near the city this collection is an ‘excellent example of the realistic poetry of Kharkiv and returned there after a brief stint as an official of the second half of the nineteenth century’ (Fekula). in St. Petersburg. Well educated and fluent in French, German, English and Latin, he taught poetry, grammar and rhetoric Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-1878), a much-loved poet in his own at Kharkiv University before retiring to his family estate in right whose work Turgenev described as ‘brandish[ing] like 1811 and dedicating himself to literature. His popular poems fire’, is also credited with discovering and first publishing many and fables satirised bureaucracy, corruption and the Russian other Russian literary giants. As the editor of Sovremennik, nobility’s obsession with French ‘high culture.’ a journal founded years earlier by Aleksandr Pushkin, Nekrasov was responsible for the publication of Dostoevsky’s first works, Nakhimov published very little during his lifetime, and the few Turgenev’s A Hunstman’s Sketches, and even Chernyshevskii’s pieces that he did publish appeared only in periodicals. Zeitgeist-defining novel What is to be done? (a question later His first book was only published after his death through the ‘answered’ by Lenin himself in a tract of the same name). efforts of his fellow Kharkiv satirist and fabulist, Vasilii Maslovich (1792-1841). The book was well received and was followed by Provenance: Paul M. Fekula (this copy is no. 4982 in his catalogue). 5 further editions (published in 1816, 1822, 1841, 1842 and 1852). First edition; 8vo. pp. [2], table of contents, 169 including title Provenance: K.A. Shenaevich (stamp on rear pastedown); (with slight discolouration) and half-title. Contemporary black calf bookseller’s small stamp on rear pastedown. backed brown cloth, speckled edges; rebacked to style.

First edition; 8vo (21 x 13 cm). 136pp., including title; scattered spotting; contemporary russian sprinkled half calf, rebacked preserving original spine, red morocco label; extremities rubbed. Sm.Sok. 887; Belinskiy, Complete Works (Moscow, 1954), vol. V, p.130.

30 Shapero Rare Books one of the earliest translations of animal farm ‘the last ray of a tragic sunset’ 48. ORWELL, George. Колгосп Тварин. Kolgosp Tvarin. 49. OZEROV, V l a d i s l av A l e k s a n d rov i c h . Эдип в [Animal Farm]. Munich, Prometei, 1947. Афинах; Фингал; Дмитрий Донской. [Oedipus in Athens, £1,200 [ref: 100286] Fingal; Dmitry Donskoy]. St Petersburg, Ivan Glazunov, 1816.

First Ukrainian edition, with a special preface by George £1,250 [ref: 94185] Orwell in which he recounts his experiences in the Spanish A sammelband of the three most famous tragedies by ‘the last Civil War, his views on Stalinism and the inspiration behind major dramatist in the classicist tradition’ (Terras). this novel. Vladislav Ozerov (1769-1816) wrote only five tragedies It concludes with a fascinating insight into the genesis in his lifetime, but met with great success. The public liked of Animal Farm: ‘On my return from Spain I thought of exposing the atmosphere of sensibility and romanticism that the the Soviet myth in a story that could easily be understood author infused into the classical drama, but it was these same by almost anyone and which could be easily translated into attributes which were later criticised by conservative critics other languages... One day...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years such as Shishkov, or even Pushkin and Griboedov. old, driving a huge cart-horse along a narrow path, whipping it Ozerov’s first success was Oedipus in Athens (1804), a wry whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals comment on Alexander I’s rumoured implication in the murder became aware of their strength we should have no power of his father Paul. The public was delighted with his next tragedy, over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same Fingal (1805), staged with superb sets representing sombre way as the rich exploit the proletariat...’ (translation provided Scottish scenery. However it was Dmitry Donskoy (1807) which by Fenwick, p.97) became Ozerov’s most popular creation, thanks to its strong patriotic message: it was staged within days after the Battle First Ukrainian edition, one of 2000 copies; 8vo (21 x 15 cm); with of Eylau, which took place in East Prussia between Napoleon’s a special foreword from the author for this edition, pages sunned, Grande Armée and the Russian army. spine chipped at ends and glued; publisher’s illustrated wrappers, a fine copy. Fenwick A.10.T25. The three works found here are all second editions, published in the year of Ozerov’s death. Second editions, 3 vols in 1. 8vo (25.5 x 20 cm); engraved portrait frontispiece by Nikolai Utkin after A. Notbek, 73pp., including half-title and title, [2]pp.; 50pp.; 82pp.; contemporary half-leather over green boards; rebacked. Sopikov 11978, 11967, 11887; cf. for the Works Fekula 5015 and Obolyaninov Portraits 314; cf. Terras 144.

Shapero Rare Books 31 rare early play with rare Nobel Prize winner wrap-around band 50. OSTROVSKY, A l e k s a n d r N i ko l a e v i c h . Бедная 51. PASTERNAK, Boris. Doctor Zhivago. London, Collins Невеста. Bednaia Nevesta. [The Poor Bride]. Mosscow, and Harvill Press, 1958. Stepanov, 1852. £1,200 [ref: 95460] £4,000 [ref: 83608] Set in Imperial Russia, the novel opens in the early years of Very good copy of this rare early play by one of the leading the 20th century and follows the tragic love story between Russian playwrights of the XIX century. Yuri Zhivago and Lara Guichard through both World War I and the upheaval of the Russian Revolution. Filmed by David Deemed by literary historians to be the founder of Russian Lean in 1965 starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. national drama, Aleksandr Ostrovsky (1823-86) belonged to the school of realism that also counted Tolstoy and Turgenev Banned in the Soviet Union, due to the author’s independent- among its members, but chose the play rather than the novel minded stance on the October Revolution. as his medium. He is particularly known for his depiction of ordinary merchants, government bureaucrats and other First UK edition. 8vo; publisher’s red cloth boards, complete with middle-class denizens of Moscow and the Volga River region. rare Nobel Prize winner wrap-around band, faint spotting to endpapers, a few small chips to upper edge, not price-clipped or The Poor Bride, Ostrovsky’s second play, was first published in sun-faded, a near fine example. the literary magazine The Muscovite (edited by Mikhail Pogodin) earlier in 1852. Initially banned for production by the censor, The Poor Bride eventually became one of the author’s first plays to be staged, at the Maliy Theatre, Moscow, in 1853. From then until Ostrovsky’s death, not a year went by without a new play of his appearing onstage somewhere in the Russian Empire. First edition; large 8vo. (25 x 16.2 cm); 128pp. including title; some light spotting and staining; Russian contemporary quarter sheep, marbled paper boards; minor repairs to spine. Not in Kilgour or Smirnov-Sok., Biblioteka.

32 Shapero Rare Books incredibly rare first edition of Pasternak’s first work 52. PASTERNAK, Boris. Близнец в Тучах. Bliznets v tuchakh. [Twin in the Clouds]. Moscow, P.P. Riabushinskii for Lirika, 1914 [but 19 December 1913]. £9,500 [ref: 100279] Scarce collection of poems by one of Russia’s most famous literary figures, it was only afterBliznets v tuchakh was published that Pasternak considered writing as a serious career. Both the author and his friend Nikolai Aseev who wrote the preface were relatively unknown at the time and the book was not well received by Maykovsky or the First Journal of Russian Futurists. Pasternak later said that of this criticism that ‘everything I did a long time ago was unacceptably revolutionary, overturning all my contemporaries conceptions of poetry’.

First edition, one of only 200 copies; small 4to (17 x 12.7 cm); foreword by Nikolai Assev, original printed wrappers, stains to covers, cover partly detached from spine, slight wear to covers otherwise a good copy without any restoration, in a modern custom-made box.

Shapero Rare Books 33 a gift from the author 53. PASTERNAK, Boris. В первые. Стихотворения It’s likely that only a handful of copies of the ‘Green Notebook’ 1945-1957 годов. Стихи из романа в прозе. II Когда were made as at the time Pasternak and his circle were already разгуляется. [In the Interlude. Poems from the years 1945- closely watched by the Soviet authorities and any controversial 1957. Poems of Doctor Zhivago. II When the Weather material associated with the writer might have served as a Clears]. [Moscow], 1957; 1959. reason for prosecution. Our copy of samizdat was personally £27,500 [ref: 95349] given by Boris Pasternak to Georges Nivat (b. 1935, France), who, during his student years in Moscow in 1956 to 1960, Extremely rare samizdat of the poems of Pasternak, prepared at a became a friend of the writer and fiancé of his adoptive time when he feared he would not be allowed to publish Doctor daughter, Irina Ivinskaya. The publication of Doctor Zhivago in Zhivago, gifted by the author to the fiancé of his adoptive the West and subsequent award of the Nobel Prize had tragic daughter. With four loosely inserted typed poems from consequences not only for Pasternak himself but also for his January 1959, including Pasternak’s famous The Nobel Prize. family and inner circle. It took more than ten years for Pasternak to write the novel A strange mix of desperation and hope that dominated Doctor Zhivago, which he completed in 1955. A year earlier Pasternak’s household in 1959 is reflected in his poetry written the periodical Znamia published a collection of poems titled the same year. ‘During the last ten days of the month Pasternak Стихи из романа в прозе ‘Доктор Живаго’ [Poems from the composed four ‘January additions of 1959” that were added to novel in prose ‘Doctor Zhivago’], which included 10 out of 25 the manuscript of When Weather Clears. [...] The best-known poems from the final chapter of the on vel. poem of the group - The Nobel Prize - was probably written In spring 1956 Pasternak offered a manuscript of the completed on or soon after 20 January, at a moment of darkest gloom novel to two leading literary periodicals Noviy Mir and Znamia. after parting from Ivinskaya. It was the pained protest of a poet Rightfully having little hope for his work to be published in the trapped like some wild creature and with no way to escape’ Soviet Union, Pasternak passed a copy to the Italian published [Barnes, 2:328]. Our copy of the Notebook contains loosely Нобелевская Feltrinelli via journalist Sergio d’Angelo. inserted all four original typescript poems: премия [The Nobel Prize], Божий мир [The God’s World], By the end of 1957 Pasternak was losing faith that he would Единственный дни [Days One and Only], Зимние Праздники ever see his novel in print. Soviet publishers returned the [Winter Holidays]. manuscript accompanied by letters of firm refusal and the authorities pressured him into sending a telegram to Feltrinelli After the writer’s death in 1960 the Soviet authorities sought asking him to abandon the publication. In was under these revenge on his family. Irina together with her mother, a long circumstances that ‘In November [1957] a new typewritten time lover and muse of the poet Olga Ivinskaya, were arrested album was prepared and bound, forming the so-called on the accusations of being the Pasternak’s link with Western ‘Green Notebook’; copies of it were distributed to friends publishers and receiving foreign currency for Doctor Zhivago. in Moscow and also sent abroad to [Jacqueline] de Proyart A few weeks earlier the Soviet authorities deported Georges and others. Under the title In the interlude [В первые], the Nivat from Russia, just two days before his wedding with notebook contained all the Zhivago poems and 31 other Irina. They also made sure he could not re-enter Russia for recent compositions. In the ‘Green Notebook’ the new poems many years to come. Irina was sentenced to three years in a featured for the first time under their final title When Weather labour camp. There she met a poet Vadim Kozovoy, who she Clears. [Barnes, 2:353]. subsequently married after the release. At exactly the same time, despite huge pressure from Soviet In the following years Georges Nivat became widely known and Italian authorities, Feltrinelli managed to publish an Italian as a Slavist and translator of Russian literature, including works translation of Doctor Zhivago in Milan. In August 1958 a pirate by Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky, Tsvetaeva and Pushkin. In the 1970s edition in Russian came out in Holland, which was followed by Nivat was approached by the Russian composer and cultural Feltrinelli’s Russian edition in January 1959. figure Nikolay Nabokov (1903-1978), a cousin of the writer

34 Shapero Rare Books Vladimir Nabokov, who wanted to compose romances based on the late Pasternak’s poetry. Nabokov persuaded Nivat to lend him the ‘Green Notebook’, and according to the latter, composed five romances with Yuriy Zhivago’s poetry. Unfortunately, Nabokov died before he could return the treasured samizdat. After several failed attempts to recover the Notebook, Nivat thought that it had perished. It was not until our research prompted us to get in touch with him that Nivat learned about the samizdat’s whereabouts. Understandably stunned, he wrote to us in his the reply that the news felt like “a letter from ‘over there’, a mysterious signal from the poet himself”. We thank Mr Nivat for kindly confirming the authenticity of the Notebook and providing details about its provenance. Provenance: Georges Michel Nivat (inscription to verso of upper wrapper, manuscript notes in text); Nikolay Nabokov (1903- 1978). 8vo (23 x 15.7 cm). [1], 100 leaves, duplicated typescript, rectos only, with 4 typescript poems dated in type January 1959 loosely inserted; green wrappers, stitched, wrappers worn (with losses to top); inside front wrapper with holograph ex libris Georges Michel Nivat; some passages with holograph re-inking of faint typing in Nivat’s hand, terminal leaf (100) entirely-re-inked. Barnes pp328, 353 – 354.

Shapero Rare Books 35 with magnificent plates 54. [PUSHKIN]. Альбом памяти А.С. Пушкина: XV рисунков. [Album in the Memory of A.S. Pushkin: 15 illustrations]. Moscow, Izd. V.I. Ivanova, 1880. £9,750 [ref: 91549]

Grand commemorative album with magnificent plates published on the occasion of inauguration of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow. Including a large portrait of the poet by Nikolay Matveev and 14 illustrations created by Nikolay Bogatov, Klavdiy Lebedev and Konstantin Trutovskiy, Russian artists that made their names by illustrating pieces of Russian literature and depicting historical events. The lithographed plates illustrate selected scenes from Pushkin’s best known pieces, such as Eugene Onegin and Boris Godunov, and are accompanied by the corresponding extracts from the poems. Designed by Alexander Opekushin, the monument to the great poet was inaugurated in 1880 in Pushkinskaya square on 6th June, Pushkin’s birthday. It was a major event celebrated with pomp and grandeur and accompanied by numerous exhibitions and commemorative publications. This particular album, however, seems to have been published in a small edition, as assumed by the curators of the Tver regional art museum, whose 2015 summer exhibition title ‘The Pushkin album. The graphics and decorative arts from the collection of the Tver Regional Art Gallery’ features plates from this publication. WorldCat locates only two copies outside Russia - in the library of Congress and Yale University library. Provenance: The Demidoff-Obolenski family; Boris Berezovskiy, 1946-2013, Russian businessman and politician. Large folio (60.5 x 44.5 cm); illustrated with 15 lithographed plates (incl. 2 plates by N.S. Matveev, 7 by N.A. Bogatov, 3 by K.V.Lebedev, 2 by K.A.Trutovskiy), tissue guards with printed text; light marginal waterstain to one plate and tissue, light occasional spotting; original publisher’s quarter calf over green cloth boards, lettering to upper cover; spine rubbed with some losses, upper spine restored, covers slightly spotted.

36 Shapero Rare Books with a presentation inscription from the author’s widow Svetlov-Fekula copy - one of only 50 examples 55. [PUSHKIN]. FRANK, Semyon. Этюды о Пушкине. 56. PUSHKIN, Alexander. Путешествие в Арзрум во [Studies on Pushkin]. Munich, published by the author’s family, 1957. время похода 1829 года. [A Journey to Arzrum during the campaign of 1829]. Paris, Lifar, 1934. £295 [ref: 93239] £2,950 [ref: 86298] First edition limited to 500 copies of this collection of articles Privately published, this copy is from the very rare edition of 50 about Alexander Pushkin written by the Russian philosopher copies only, each one bearing the printed name of the recipient. Semyon Frank (1877-1950). This copy was made for Valerian Svetlov also known as Eleven articles about Pushkin are known to have been written V. Ivchenko, an active supporter of Diaghilev and the Ballets by Frank during his long career. In his will the philosopher listed Russes, who was involved in the organisation of the first five of the previously published pieces suggesting that his family season in 1909. After having published some of the best issued a compilation of these articles posthumously. works on Russian ballet, he died in January 1934 - ten months before the printing of the present work: an unusual example of Thus, the ‘Studies’ that came out seven years after the Frank’s a posthumous dedication. death included «Религиозность Пушкина» [The Religiosity of Pushkin] (Put’, 1933. № 40); «Пушкин как политический The work is a facsimile of Pushkin’s notebook that Serge мыслитель» [Pushkin as a Political Thinker](Belgrade, Lifar acquired from a dealer in Paris. The notebook contains 1937); «О Задачах Познания Пушкина» [On Objectives a handwritten introduction to A Journey to Arzrum with the of Understanding Pushkin] (Belgrade, 1937) «Пушкин об first two pages crossed out and not subsequently included in Отношениях между Россией и Европой» [Pushkin on the Pushkin’s publication of the novel in Sovremennik in 1836. The Relations between Russia and Europe] (Vozrozhdenie, January, wrappers were designed by R. M. Dobuzhinskiy, son of Mstislav. 1949); «Светлая Печаль» [The Light Sorrow] (Vozrozhdenie, Provenance: Valerian Yakovlevich Svetlov (printed dedication); May, 1949). Paul M. Fekula (this copy as num. 5163 in his catalogue) Provenance: Sofia Alekseevna Brey (presentation inscription from Limited edition, one of 50 copies; 4to; (27 x 21 cm); 78 [2] the author’s widow: «Дорогой Софье Алексеевне Брей. Лондон pp., including facsimile letters in Russian and French, frontispiece, / декабрь 1957. / Т.Франк»). head- and tailpieces, loose ad leaf inserted; discrete stamp ‘Printed First edition, one of 500 copies; 8vo (20.5 x 15 cm); 127pp.; printed in France’ to title; publisher’s printed wrappers by Dobuzhinskiy; publisher’s wrappers, spine faded, ink presentation inscription a bit soiled, fore-edge of upper cover slightly creased. on front free endpaper.

Shapero Rare Books 37 57. PUSHKIN, Alexander Sergeevich; VASNETSOV, 58. PUSHKIN, A l e x a n d e r S e r g e y e v i c h . Поэмы и Vasiliy (illustrator). Песнь о Вещем Олеге: К столетию Повести. Часть 1. Poemy i Povesti. Chast’ 1. [Poems and о дня рождения Пушкина 26 мая 1899 год. [The Song of stories. Part 1.]. St Petersburg, Miltary Press, 1835. Wise Oleg: to mark the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s birth, £8,000 [ref: 100283] 26 May 1899]. St Petersburg, Eksp. zagotov. gos. bumag, [1899]. first edition of one of the rarest lifetime collections £1,950 [ref: 91120] of Pushkin’s narrative poems. This edition includes Pushkin’s Ruslan and Ludmila The Prisoner of Exceptionally fine example of one of Vasnetsov’s most famous earliest narrative poems: , the Caucasus The Fountain of Bakhchisaray illustrated works, published to commemorate the anniversary and . These works had of Pushkin’s birth. already been published separately but the assembly of three such popular poems into one volume priced at 20 roubles This very fragile work was designed and illustrated in the style was eagerly anticipated as it was much more affordable. of an ancient manuscript, richly embellished with ornaments Its success in subsequent years meant that according to and miniatures; it therefore marked a turning point in the Smirnov-Solkolskii most copies were ‘destroyed by sheer use’. development of illustrated children’s books. The work was This explains its rarity both on the antique market and in reissued and presented at the International Exhibition for Book international institutions. The two volumes were published four Printing and Graphics in 1914. Vasnetsov’s original approach months apart and not sold together, therefore the volumes was continued by Ivan Bilibin and the artists of Mir Isskustva are not likely to be found in a set. [The World of Art]. The Song of Wise Oleg First edition (part I of II); 8vo (20 x 12 cm); somewhat waterstained Pushkin wrote early in his career, around and fore-edge soiled, skilful restoration to a few pages including 1822, but it was not published until 1899. The poem tells the tite-page, a small clean tear to p.129; doublure with silk the story a Varangian prince said to have ruled the Rus’ people endpapers, modern green morocco, gilt detail to spine and covers. during the early 10th centur y. Smirnov-Sokol’skii, Pushkin, 34; Kilgour 889 Folio (33 x 23 cm); 6 accordion-folded leaves, with a printed page as front cover and another as rear cover, chromolithographed illustrations throughout; protected by cardboard wrappers. Kilgour 897; Seslavinskiy, Girlianda 189.

38 Shapero Rare Books finely bound illustrated edition of Pushkin’s Boris Godunov 59. PUSHKIN, A l e x a n d e r ; ZWORYKINE, B o r i s 60. [RUSSIAN EMIGRÉS]. Опыты [Experiments]. (illustrator). Boris Godounov. Paris, Piazza, 1927. Numbers I, III, and VIII. New York, Vol I & VIII Rausaen Bros., Vol III. £1,250 [ref: 99630] Chekhov Publishing House 1953, ‘54 & ‘57. £800 [ref: 97306] Written by Pushkin in 1825 and published in 1831, it was not approved by the censor for performance until 1866. Experiments was the first post-war Russian emigré literary A historical drama written in blank verse and based on the journal, printed in New York between 1953 and 1958 with reign of Tsar Boris Godunov from 1598 to 1605, it’s not only a total of nine editions. These three volumes feature some one of Pushkin’s most popular works but it is praised as one of of the most famous names in 20th Century Russian literature the most important plays of the early 19th century. and works by Nabokov printed here for the first time including В последний раз лиясь листами A graduate of the Moscow Academy, Zworykine’s art was the poem, [For the last time, with leaves that flow], chapters 1-3 of Другие Берега immediately met with success and he began work illustrating Заметки переводчика-II books, painting religious frescoes and decorating menus [Other Shores], an article titled and programmes for the Imperial family. His warm colours and [notes of a translator-II]. intricate patterns in his characters, interiors and architecture First editions; 3 vols; 8vo ; original wrappers, printed in red and celebrate the richness of Russian cultural heritage and perfectly black, edges uncut (a few pale stains and some very minor chipping complement the sentiment of Pushkin’s work. to extremities), blue cloth folding case. Juliar C534; C535; C555. Provenance: Lagadère (ex-libris to upper paste down). Limited edition, one of 775 copies of velin rives; 4to (23 x 17.5 cm); translated by A. Baranoff; with 26 lithographic illustrations after Zworykine, of which 15 are full-page; original printed wrappers bound in later half red morocco, spine in five parts with gilt detail and floral inlays, t.e.g., a fine copy.

Shapero Rare Books 39 fine example of the rare first ‘pirate’ edition published abroad 61. SOLZHENITSYN, Aleksandr Isaevich. Август 62. SOLZHENITSYN, Aleksandr Isayevich. Один день четырнадцатого [c] Читая ‘Август четырнадцатого’ А.И. Ивана Денисовича. [One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]. Солженицына. [August of 1914 [with] Reading ‘August of London, Flegon Press, [1962]. 1914’ by Solzhenitsyn]. New York & Paris, Beresniak for YMCA £4,750 [ref: 91668] & Rausen publishers, 1971. £175 [ref: 83811] The plot of the Solzhenitsyn’s very first published novel is set in a Soviet labour camp in the 1950s and describes a single day Very good copy of the first edition authorised by Solzhenitsyn, of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. After more who had an agreement with the YMCA Press in Paris from than half a century since its publication the significance and the early 1970s, although his works continued to be pirated in influence of the deceptively simple story remains unsurpassed. London and elsewhere. The novel was specifically mentioned in the Nobel Prize presentation speech when the Nobel Committee awarded ‘The primary project of my life’, first conceived in 1936, is the Solzhenitsyn the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. cycle of historical novels of the birth of the USSR entitled Red Wheel (Krasnoe koleso), of which the only ‘knot’ yet The novel first appeared in print in November 1962 in the published in its entirety is August 1914. Starting with Soviet literary magazine Noviy Mir. It was an extraordinary the debacle of the Russian army in East Prussia at the beginning event in Soviet literary history since never before had of World War I and interweaving the destinies of numerous an account of Stalinist repression been openly distributed. fictional and historical characters, it aims at an interpretation The editor of Novy Mir, Aleksandr Tvardovskiy, wrote in a short of the October Revolution comparable in breadth and depth introduction for the issue, titled ‘Instead of a Foreword: to War and Peace for the War of 1812. Provenance: With Eric Korn, bookseller in London; Private collection. First Russian edition; 8vo (19 x 13.5 cm); 573pp.; two maps at rear; First ‘pirate’ edition; 8vo; (24.2 x 16 cm); 67 pp.; original printed publisher’s white wrappers; spine browned otherwise in very good wrappers.; owner’s neat highlighting in pen to first 8 pp., wrappers condition, internally fresh. slightly soiled; T. Mathew, ‘A guide to the Russian editions of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s major works’, Rare Book Review.

40 Shapero Rare Books unique copy illustrated with original gouaches by Sergey Solomko 63. SOLOMKO, Sergey Sergeevich (illustrator); MERIMÉE, Prosper. Carmen. Paris, Ferroud, 1911. £12,500 [ref: 99730] Sergey Sergeevich Solomko (1859-1926) was a well-known Russian watercolourist and illustrator. Born in St Petersburg, he later attended the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture before working for Mir Isskustva as an illustrator. After numerous exhibitions at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, Solomko gained notoriety abroad and won a prize at the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893. After 1900 his popularity as an artist led him to the Imperial Porcelain Factory where he began to work for Carl Fabergé. His most prominent work for Fabergé was a painting on a bridal fan presented to the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna on 27th July 1901 by her brother Emperor Nicholas II on the occasion of her marriage to Prince Peter of Oldenburg. Of particular distinction is Solomko’s style which was inspired by medieval Russian compositions and was the impetus behind many of his costume designs. His elaborate costumes for the 1903 Ball at the Winter Palace were hugely popular at the time and ensured his status amongst white émigré Russians in Paris after the revolution. The extravagance and opulence of his style evoked the romance of a bygone era and in this work compliments the characters and costumes of Merimée’s novella wonderfully. Provenance: G. Beauvillain (ex-libris and stamp to front free end papers). Unique copy on japon; 8vo (21.5 x 14.5 cm); illustrated with 26 original gouaches signed by Sergey Solomko in place of the 25 engravings by Gaston Vuillier, 5 of which are full-page; red morocco, gilt doublures with yellow silk, marbled endpapers, spine in six parts with raised bands, gilt title and date, a.e.g.; in excellent condition.

Shapero Rare Books 41 64. TEFFI [pseudonym of Nadezhda Aleksandrovna 65. TOLSTOY, Leo. Resurrection. ‘Revised Edition’... Lokhvitskaya]. Все о Любви. Vse o Lyubvi. [All about Translated by Mrs. Louise Maude. With illustrations from the Love]. Paris, La presse française et étrangère, [n.d.1946]. Universal Picture starring John Boles and Lupe Velez. New York, Grossett & Dunlap, [1931]. £600 [ref: 99577] £160 [ref: 97642] Teffi was a hugely popular writer in pre-Revolutionary Russia A nice film tie-in adaptation of the last major work of fiction and could count Repin, Rasputin and Tsar Nicholas II amongst published in Tolstoy’s lifetime. Resurrection was an eagerly her admirers. Born into an aristocratic family she made anticipated return to novel writing after 25 years of publishing a treacherous journey through Ukraine across the Black Sea non-fiction works, it was so popular even in its heavily censored and on to Paris in order to evade financial ruin and persecution. state that it outsold its predecessors War and Peace and Anna Despite the hard times which much of the émigré community Karenina. had fallen upon, Teffi found the situation ripe for her satirical style of writing and she poked fun at her fellow expats. First film screen edition; 8vo; photographic plates, original decorative cloth to same style as first American edition, visually This collection of short stories with the ironic title of ‘everything striking dust-jacket with scene from the film, a few minor closed about love’ is written in a gossipy style which mocks the tears and rubbing to extremities, but overall a fine example. incestuous frivolities of the Russian speaking community and in fact details tales of ridiculous adultery rather than passion. A wonderful writer to read, Teffi uses language skilfully to incite laughter and heartbreak simultaneously. First edition; 8vo (18.5 x 13 cm); 270pp.; original wrappers printed in green and black bound in later green cloth with red leather label to spine, some pages uncut, a fine copy.

42 Shapero Rare Books first public ation 66. TOLSTOY, Leo. War and Peace. From The Russian 67. TOLSTOY, Leo and others. Встреча в отряде с by Nathan Haskell Dole. London, Walter Scott, [1889]. московским знакомым. Из Кавказских записок князя Нехлюдова [в] Библиотекe для чтения [№12, декабрь]. [ref: 100274] £1,100 [Encounter with a Moscow Acquaintance in the Detachment Henry Vizetelly is credited with publishing the ‘true first UK [in] Library for Reading [№12, December]. St Petersburg, edition’ three years earlier in 1886, the same pivotal year Shtab otdeln. korpusa vnutr. strazhy, 1856. £2,750 [ref: 83609] that ‘Anna Karenina’ was also published. However his earlier version was not translated directly from the original Russian A complete copy of the Biblioteka dlia Chteniya December issue but from a French translation and it was a slightly abridged featuring the first appearance in print of the Tolstoy’s story version, omitting philosophical passages and the second about degraded soldiers that he personally met during his trip epilogue. This was rivalled by another translation from the to Caucasus. The work was originally called ‘Из Кавказских French into English but the edition here is the first UK edition воспоминаний. Разжалованный’ [‘From the Caucasus translated directly from the Russian original. Memories. The Degraded’], but it didn’t pass censorship and First UK edition translated directly from the original Russian; 4 vols, as a result, the story was published in the ‘Library for Reading’ 8vo, (19 x 13 cm); footnotes by Dole, age-mottling to endpapers, a magazine under the current title. few spots reaching half-titles and titles, otherwise crisp and bright, Biblioteka dlia Chteniya [Library for Reading] was a Russian possibly unread; near-contemporary half calf over marbled boards monthly periodical published in Saint Petersburg between with all edges marbled to match, bound without advertisements 1834 and 1865. in rear, as was common, later but complementary lettering-pieces to spines, small, period shelf labels to upper paste-downs, rubbed, Provenance: B.L.G. (Cyrillic lettering to spine foot, with ‘Izm. Pol.’ - a few marks but otherwise most attractive. Line Tolstoi-104. probably a soldier from the Izmaylovksiy regiment). 8vo (24.5 x 17 cm); VIII, 86, 73-182, 93-162, 93-120, 121- 162, 31-64, 29-82, 115-216, 3-4, IV, [8] pp.; occasional spotting; pagination as per index, complete copy; contemporary half-calf over marbled boards, flat spine with gilt lettering, original wrappers bound in; extremities rubbed, boards worn.

Shapero Rare Books 43 rare first edition 68. TURGENEV, Ivan; KONASHEVICH, Vladimir 69. TURGENEV, Ivan Sergeevich. Новь. Nov’. [Virgin (illus.) Первая любовь. Pervaia Lyubov’. [First Love]. Soil]. Leipzig, Gerhard, 1877. Berlin, Grzhebin, 1923. £5,250 [ref: 86213] £375 [ref: 90355] Fine copy of the rare first edition in book form of Turgenev’s A wonderful edition of this classic of 19th century Russian last and longest novel. It was this work, the last of Turgenev’s literature illustrated by the artist and member of Mir Iskusstva novel, Virgin Soil that established the writer as a global political [World of Art] Vladimir Konashevich (1888-1963). For this and literary authority. In it, the psychological depth combined publication the artist opted for pocket format and added small with the vivid descriptions of the desolate Russian countryside vignettes to help convey the particularly lyrical mood of the and its rural villages lend the novel a photographic quality not novel. Konashevich is one of the most famous Soviet book present in his earlier work - a harshness and rythm which is illustrators and was a member of literary and artistic group the sign of Turgenev’s ultimate artistic maturity. between 1922 and 1924. Virgin Soil offers a complex and careful examination of First Love was first published in 1860 and is the most the political unrest of Turgenev’s times. If in Fathers and Sons autobiographical of Turgenev’s works, set in 1833 the novella Turgenev tactfully examined the nature of nihilist theories recounts the story of how a 16 year old son and his father in the young generation, in Virgin Soil the writer confronts are both in love with their 21 year old neighbour. Despite the the full force of populism, a radicalised and highly politicized rather licentious overtones First Love remains a much-loved offspring of nihilism. classic of golden age Russian literature and has been adapted for both screen and stage. Provenance: E. Shneider (inscription to title). 16mo (14.7 x 10 cm); 130 pp. including half-title and title, with First edition; 8vo (18.5 x 12 cm); two parts in 1 vol; 283pp., multiple illustrations including 4 full page, publisher’s wrappers; 244pp.; contemporary half-sheep over marble boards, spine neat restoration, a good copy. with raised bands, gilt ruled.

44 Shapero Rare Books complete portfolio of types 70. TURGENEV, Ivan Sergeevich; BEM, Elizaveta 71. TURGENEV, Ivan Sergeevich (translator) and Merkurievna (illus.) Типы из Записок Охотника в Charles PERRAULT. Синяя Борода [La Barbe bleue]. силуэтах. [Types from ‘Sketches from a Hunter’s Album’.] St Petersburg, Suvorin, 1910]. St Petersburg, Ekspeditsii zagotovleniya gosudarstvennykh bumag, £475 [ref: 94739] 1883. £1,500 [ref: 88996] A lovely edition of the French folk tale famously popularised by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in Uncommon complete portfolio of types from Turgenev’s 1697. It was first published in Russian with other Perrault’s masterpiece by one of the most celebrated Russian illustrators of tales translated by Ivan Turgenev in 1866 under the title children’s literature. In the present work illustrations are placed “Волшебные сказки Перро” [Magical Tales by Perrault]. along the fragments of text, which is rather complimentary to the charming silhouettes in the German manner used by This pre-Revolutionary edition is illustrated with impressive Bem to depict characters. chromolithographs by the Russian artist Sergey Ploshynskiy. Bem (1843-1914) – Russian artist and illustrator, developed 4to (26 x 26.5 cm); 19 pp., including title, with multiple her skills at the Drawing school in Saint Petersburg, where she chromolithographed illustrations; some light spotting to title; became a master of silhouette - one of the rarest techniques, publisher’s pictorial boards; rubbed, corners bumped. especially among children’s illustrators. For her work Bem received multiple awards at Russian, as well as international exhibitions. Folio (31 x 24 cm); complete unbound suite of 20 photolithographs of silhouettes; original loose decorated grey wrappers; some soiling, spine partially split, partial loss with upper right hand corner, chipped, stamp “Printed in Russia” to upper cover.

Shapero Rare Books 45 72. Z H U KOV S K Y, V a s i l i y ; B L A n c HA r d, N . Blanchard’s publication is very rare. We could find only one (translator). Игорь, поэма героическая: перевод copy appearing on the market in 2008, bound together with a с русского с присовокуплением двух баллад взятых Pushkin first edition, which we acquired at that time. WorldCat из Жуковского с российским подлинником и разных locates only three copies in public libraries: Bibliothèque стихотворений. Igor, Poéme Héroique: Traduit du Russe nationale de France, The British Library, The Russian National Suivi de Deux Ballades Traduites de Joukovsky, avec le Library. Texte de ces Trois Poémes et de Poésies Diverses. [Igor, A Heroic Poem: Translated from Russian, with Two Ballads by 8vo (22.5 x 14 cm); frontispiece engraved by A. Grachev, 111 Zhukovskii, in translation and original, plus assorted Poems]. pp., including half-title and title, xvi, [2]; pp. v-vi with upper corner Moscow, Semen, 1823. torn off without any text loss, parallel texts in French and Russian, £4,250 [ref: 90371] followed by 19 poems in French only; contemporary half-calf over marbled boards; extremities of the spine restored; Sobranie A fine example of the first French translation of a classic V.A. Krylova (Roza Vetrov, Skt. Peterburg, 2013), No183; Trudi Russian epic with lifetime translations of Zhukovsky’s most Otdela drevnerusskoy literaturi / Akademiya nauk SSSR. Institut famous ballads. russkoy literatury (M.; L.: Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1935): Count Aleksei Musin-Pushkin discovered The Tale of Igor’s Т. 2. P.N. Berkov. K bibliografii zapadnykh izucheniy i perevodov. ‘ Campaign in manuscript form in 1797. As soon as he had Slova o polku Igoreve’, p. 151. published it, various interpretations of the work started to appear in modern Russian, both in prose and in verse. However, because the language of the work was so difficult, translations into foreign languages took much longer. It was first translated into German by Johann Richter in 1803, then into Polish by Cyprian Godebski in 1806. Blanchard’s translation was the third publication of Igor in a foreign language. Blanchard explains in the introduction to this work that he first encounteredIgor when he read the tale in Musin-Pushkin’s 1800 publication. Deeply impressed, he first attempted to translate it in prose before opting for the verse translation that appears in the present publication. Blanchard based his translation on Ivan Levitsii’s interpretation of the XII century work into modern Russian, the original version of which is also present in this publication. In the second part of the book, alongside nineteen original French poems likely written by Blanchard himself, we find Zhukovsky’s translated ballads Akhill (Achille) and Eolova Arfa (La Harpe d’Eole), both originally published in 1815. They are considered to be the finest examples of the poet’s romantic work. Belinskii, for example, wrote of Eolova Arfa that, ‘она — прекрасное и поэтическое произведение, где сосредоточен весь смысл, вся благоухающая прелесть романтики Жуковского.’ [It is a magnificent and poetic work, in which all of Zhukovskii’s sense and fragrant charm have been concentrated.] (Complete works, vol. VII, p. 171).

46 Shapero Rare Books 73. ZOTOV, Rafail Mikhailovich. Таинственный монах. Tainstvenniy monakh. [The Mystery Monk]. St Petersburg, Tip. III-go otdeleniya Sobstvennoy E.I.V. kantseliarii, 1834. £3,750 [ref: 91632]

A lovely example of the first edition of this historical novel depicting Russia in the second half of the 17th century and the rise to power of Peter the Great. Novelist and playwright Rafail Zotov (1795-1871) was read by Tolstoy and a firm favourite of the Russian middle class. Zotov took well known historical facts surrounding the power struggle between Tsarina Sofia and future Peter the Great and further interpreted them in his own artistic way, thus creating an extremely intriguing story. The unfavourable comments that were made by some critics, in particular Belinskiy who blamed the author for his frivolous interpretation of history, did not decrease in any way the interest of the wider public. To satisfy the demand for the novel, five editions had already been published by the year 1881.

A very rare production of the Golden Age of Russian literature: although the work became popular once published, the present first edition could not be traced at auctions in recent decades, nor on the market. We couldn’t find any complete copy in Western libraries, and it seems that the two biggest Russian libraries, RGB and RNB, own only separate volumes. Subscription leaf at the end of the third volume indicates that this first edition had 61 subscribers, mostly Russian nobility, including Princes Gagarin and Volkonskiy. Provenance: Boris Berezovskiy, 1946-2013, Russian businessman and politician. First edition; 3 vols, small 8vo (17.3 x 10.8 cm); engraved frontispiece to each volume, 340, [2]; 348, [2]; 352, [4]pp.; closed tear to pp.29/30 vol. III; occasional light spotting and marginal water staining, several small marginal tears without affecting the text; contemporary half green sheep over marbled boards, gilt lettering and tooling to spines, speckled edges; corners slightly bumped, gilt dimmed, boards of vol. III slightly rubbed. Obolyaninov 2648 (without date); Muratova, Istoriya Russkoy literatury XIX veka, 7584 (dated only 1836) and 7601 for Belinskiy’s review; cf. Smirnov-Sok. I, p.304.

Shapero Rare Books 47 Shapero Rare Books

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VAT Number G.B. 105 103 675

Front cover image - item 57 Inside cover images - item 59 NB: The illustrations are not equally scaled. Exact dimensions will be provided on request.

Compiled by Eleanor Moore Edited by Jeffrey Kerr Design by Magdalena Joanna Wittchen Photography by Ivone Chao and Magdalena Joanna Wittchen

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