Literature: Russian And Neighbors from PY Rare Books

First publication of the poem "Christopher Columbus", illustrated by the famous futurist artist and Maykovsky's friend. One of only three works published by Mayakovsky in the US; scarce: Worldcat locates only four physical copies (Harvard (2), Penn State, University of Notre Dame), to which we can add one copy at RNB and one at the Slavonic Library in Prague. We… Read more about this item

A presentation copy of the first expanded edition, inscribed by Akhmatova to her editor and co-translator, the linguist Aleksandr Kholodovich: 'As a memento of that time when we worked on this book. Amicably, Akhmatova, 15 January 1959'. This edition adds 37 poems to the edition issued in 1956. Akhmatova worked on all 212 poems in this collection: Kholodovich prepared a preliminary… Read more about this item

First edition of this last collection of Parnok's poems: a fine copy inscribed by Parnok to the fellow poet Tikhon Churilin (1885-1946) whom the great poetess and Parnok's lover Marina Tsvetaeva also esteemed as a brilliant poet. A member of various circles of Moscow avant-garde artists and poets, including futurists, Churilin had known both women for a decade when this… Read more about this item

Very rare: we could not find any examples of Nabokov in samizdat in the West, and only one example of Nabokov's samizdat poetry at auction in Russia. With nice provenance. This samizdat selection of poems by Nabokov from 1918-1939 is copied from the illegal in the USSR, large edition of his collected Russian poems Stikhi [Poetry] (1979, Ardis, Ann Arbor), which was… Read more about this item

Great two-volume émigré collection of poetry and analysis, in an attractive example in the original wrappers. The first volume is a roll call of major émigré names, from Remizov, through Kuprin, to Teffi; it also contains one of the earliest, if not the earliest appearance of Nabokov's work in the West, published just a few months after he went into exile.… Read more about this item

An attractive, fresh example of this scarce first edition. This is the first book by Nabokov published outside Russia, and his first collection of poems published commercially. Full notice available upon simple request Description Small 8vo (16.2 x 12.2 cm). [3]-64 pp. incl. leaf with publisher's device, title and section title. Binding Original publisher's printed wrappers, with original staples. Condition Wrappers slightly soiled or stained, just a… Read more about this item

The Pantheon of the Silver Age - a complete set. Scarce complete set of all five issues of this important almanac, which printed, often for the first time, the works of censored Russian authors. As a result, it includes most of the best Russian authors and poets of the 20th century. Contents include especially: - Vol. I: Akhmatova, Poema bez geroia [Poem Without… Read more about this item

Bound with the first Russian editions of: SERION, Anna [SEURON]. Shest let v dome grafa Lva Nikolaievicha Tolstogo [Six Years at the Household of the Count Tolstoy. Trans. from German by S. Sergiievskii]. Tip.-lit. Minkova, Skt Peterburg, 1895 [AND OF:] TOLSTOY, Lev and Nadezhda ZHIVAGO (artist). Assiriiskii tsar Assarkhadon. Tri voprosa [The Assyrian King Assarkhadon. Three questions]. Tip.-lit. Kushnerev, Moskva, [1903]. Attractive Sammelband of works by and… Read more about this item

The first edition of one of Tolstoy's greatest and most popular short stories: a fine example, with the original wrappers. This copy bears the correct first issue points: the printed wrapper is priced 20 kopeks, and the text shows the printed censorship date of 17 February 1895. Master and Man proved hugely popular, selling 15,000 copies within four days of its publication… Read more about this item

Tolstoy's first editing of the first two parts of War and Peace; the earliest appearance in print of the celebrated novel. At the beginning of 1863, Tolstoy begins writing a novella about the fate of a Decembrist. During this work, Tolstoy delves into the more global topic of Decembrism as a socio-historical phenomenon and shifts his narrative to the Napoleonic Wars… Read more about this item

The first complete edition - and the first book edition - of the celebrated novel. A very good example, in contemporary bindings. Tolstoy started writing Anna Karenina in early 1873; in May 1873 he finished the first draft. Many drafts would follow: Tolstoy was searching for that perfect opening line, a perfect name for his heroine, perfectly balanced plot lines. In… Read more about this item

A highly critical review of one of the best and most famous Russian novels. A scarce pamphlet, written by a 1812 Russian soldier, here in its first separate edition, published before the full appearance of Tolstoy's saga, which was being brought by Ris in Moscow, in 1868 through to 1869, the year Norov (1795-1869) died. Avraam Norov (1795—1869) was a statesman,… Read more about this item

The first complete poetic French translation of Pushkin's poem that "raised him to the summit of Russian Parnassus" (Terras). This is also the first separate book edition in French, and the second illustrated book by Pushkin in France. Strikingly illustrated by an original Russian female artist, and this copy inscribed by the translator: a politically-engaged playwright and one of the main… Read more about this item

Very good example of the first edition, in contemporary binding; rare such. One of Dostoevsky's great novels, and the first of his books published by Dostoevsky himself. Besy captures "the full grandeur of Dostoevsky's extraordinary endeavor, which is nothing less than to write a symbolic history of the moral-spiritual travails of the Russian spirit" (Frank, pp.430-434). It is his most overtly political… Read more about this item

The first and very influential Russian anthology for children, especially remarkable for Shishkov's original adaptation. A fine example, in contemporary binding, of the third printing, the last of the 18th century. Dedicated to Princess Ekaterina Dashkova (1743-1810), a close friend of Catherine the Great, the first woman in the world to head a national academy of sciences, the first woman in… Read more about this item

Tolstoy's own editing of his first novel: a lovely example, rare in original wrappers, of this second edition, specially adapted for children's reading and showing for the first time a different version from the standard text. Becoming a father of many children in the 1860s and 70s, Tolstoy developed a keen interest in educational practices, pedagogy and children reading. These two… Read more about this item

First edition of this important collection of stories on Soviet labour camps, which Shalamov (1907-82), a poet and man of letters on the wrong side of the Soviet authorities, experienced repeatedly during the entire reign of Stalin, from 1929 to the early 50s. Kolyma, where Shalamov spent most of his sentences, is a remote, sub-arctic region of north-eastern Siberia, where… Read more about this item

FINE EXAMPLE OF THE DELUXE VERSION ON JAPON IMPÉRIAL (№24 OF ONLY 35 COPIES), WITH AN ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR BY ZVORYKIN AND TWO ADDITIONAL SUITES, one in colour, like in the book, the other in black and white; the total print run was only 995 copies. Zvorykin (1872 - 1942) was a Russian artist, graphic designer, icon painter, and translator. In 1915,… Read more about this item

A remarkable example of revolutionary poetry during the Silver Age, and of provincial publishing during the Civil War. A unique copy, with the linocut coloured by contemporary hand and inscribed by Evangulov and Ivnev(?) to the artist of the striking cover, Ivan Ivanov: Талантливому автору нашей обложки худ. Ив. Иванову на память этот "Костер" горящий в наших умах / 17.IX.1920 / Геор[гий]… Read more about this item

First edition of Solzhenitsyn's first published book: a celebrated "pirate" edition published abroad without the author's consent. A very good example of the issue with the striking "bearded-man" cover, which Flegon used later in his own book about "the slanderer Solzhenitsyn". There was another cover published, showing a watchtower instead; there is no priority firmly established, the watchtower being possibly the… Read more about this item