27 [Scandalous poetry collection; Estonian futurism; first Mayakovsky translations in Estonian]

Print run 2,000 copies.

Near fine condition; cover shows slight soiling, several minor chippings along fore-edge of front cover, very slight trace of moisture to the upper part of back cover; internally occasional foxing and fingerprints.

The debut collection of poems by respected teacher Jaan Kurn (1893-1981) and simultabeously the most scandalous poet of the time Ralf Rond (pseud) known for his radical leftist views. Rond's the most significant merit as a poet is that he was first to introduce Mayakovsky to Estonian public. Published by a small publishing house in Narva, the book included 22 author's original poems with visible futurist inclinations written under Mayakovsky influence and 5 translations of Mayakovsky's works. Thus, it was titled just according to the number of poems included. One month after the book went on sale, it was arrested and unsold circulation was slated for burning, the author was accused with indecent content and brought to trial.

The central theme of the poems are women as "treacherous, venal animals whose life governed by instinct and biological urges, virgins at first, then prostitutes, beautiful bipeds, to whom any intelligence is unfamiliar". Rond's roughness, his writing fluctuating on the edge of good taste, racist gender treatment full of naturalistic images, was too bold even for Rond's contemporary Henrik Visnapuu, labeling women during his Siuru period. However, behind the pathos of shattering moral positions lies author's protest against existing social and political order, his dissatisfaction with the reality of the bourgeois republic and ruling Christian People's Party (some verses demonstrate clear atheistic orientation).

After the seizure of unsold circulation, the publication caused widespread controversy in the press, and thus became an object of eager public interest as it would not became if it wasn't untroubled by conflict.