The Twelve. by Blok, Alexander

NY: B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1920. 1st Edition . Soft cover. Good. Translated from the Russian and with an introduction by Babette Deutsch and Abraham Yarmolinsky. NY: B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1920. 12mo. (7" x 4.5"); 23pp.; saddle-stapled in printed wraps. Issued as part of The Freeman Pamphlets series. The first English-language edition of Blok's controversial long poem of 1918, which describes in twelve stanzas the passage of a dozen Bolshevik soldiers through the streets of a blizzardy Petrograd. Written in response to the October Revolution, the poem's political and mystical opacity earned scorn from both intellectuals and revolutionaries, respectively. As the translators note in their introduction: "The main theme is only briefly glimpsed, moving in the obscurity of broken shadows and the intermittent flash of revolutionary fires. It is interrupted by lyric passages, by snatches of street-songs, by echoes of rifle shots, and concludes with the revelation of the twelve led by the… Read More

Translated from the Russian with an introduction by Babette Deutsch and Abraham Yarmolinsky. Issued as one of The Freeman Pamphlets. About fine in stapled wrappers.Controversial Bolshevik revolution poem about twelve soldiers ( Twelve Apostles) walking through the streets of Petrograd. Scarce in this condition.

New York: B.W. Huebsch, Inc, 1920. First U.S. edition. Softcover. Translated from the Russian by Babette Deutsch and Abraham Yarmolinsky who also contribute an introduction. A poem about the Russian Revolution. An about fair copy in stapled wrappers with a chip to the top corner, splitting to the base of the spine, some staining as well and some edge tears as well. Scarce.

New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1931. Unpaginated. 32 x 24 cm. Red quarter leather with red paste paper covered boards and gilt titling to spine, in a plain white paper dustjacket and housed in a black paper covered slipcase; Limited to 650 copies, 100 of which are numbered and have as illustrations the original lithographs by George Biddle, this is number 18. Uneven sunning to slipcase, with wear and chipping to corners and extremities.Rubbing to boards of case, with some splash marks to one of the side panels. Toning to dust jacket, which is missing the spine panel and is in two pieces. Some rubbing to spine, with some light wear to tail of spine of book. Light 12.5 x 9 cm patch of adhesive where a bookplate was removed from front pastedown. Frontispiece lithograph has been signed in pencil by George Biddle. All ten lithographs have been mounted to pages, with lightly toned spots from the mounting adhesive . Interior otherwise clean and umarked. Binding sound. Due to the size of this book, additional… Read More