Search Results: Authors starting with T from PY Rare Books

The first illustrated book edition: a lovely example, unopened.The first separate edition of a chapter from "Seyfer Habeheymes" (The Book of Beasts), "Dos tosfos yom tov kelbl" (The Tosfos Yom Tov's calf), by Mendele Mocher Sforim contains seven in-text illustrations by Joseph Tchaikov, who also designed the title and cover. The logo of the Kiyever Farlag publishing house, on the first page and on the back cover, was designed by El Lissitzky.Mendele Mocher-Sforim [Mocher-Sforim means a book-pedlar in Yiddish] (1836-1917) was a pseudonym of Sholem Yankev Abramovich, one of the founders of modern Jewish and Hebrew literature, its oldest classic. Born in Kapyl (modern Belarus), until the age of 17 he studied in yeshiva (religious schools). In 1854, having settled in Kamenets-Podolsk, he studied secular culture under the influence and guidance of the writer Avrom Ber Gotlober. Sholem-Aleykhem dubbed him "Der zeyde" (The grandfather): the grandfather of Yiddish literature.The book that brought Mendele fame… Read More

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 on 05 March 1895. To meet demand, Posrednik – Tolstoy's own publishing house – issued another edition on 09 March, priced at 3 kopeks.Master and Man reflect aspects of Tolstoy's own spiritual conversion, and is sometimes seen as a companion piece to Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)
ProvenanceProchian (bookplate). Eden Martin, prominent American collector.
DescriptionTwelvemo (19.8 x 13.1 cm).Binding20thcentury red quarter morocco preserving the original wrappers and spine, these printed in red and black on cream paper.ConditionWrapper spine worn, light wear to the covers; occasional faint marginal soiling. ref: [1334]

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 fertile decades saw the birth of his pedagogical periodical Iasnaia Poliana (1862) as well as his celebrated Alphabet, whose publication finished in 1874.
Tolstoy decided then to rework a creation of his own youth, a semi-autobiographical novel on his childhood. Published twenty years earlier, Childhood and Adolescence had been Tolstoy's first published work, his first attempt at fiction and his first literary success.
It appeared from 1852 onwards in Sovremmenik, the literary periodical founded by Pushkin. Upset with the journal's extensive editing, Tolstoy had the work published as a book in 1856, restoring in particular… Read More

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 about Tolstoy, most in first Russian editions, including one illustrated by Nadezhda Zhivago.
Full notice available upon request
ProvenanceSir Isaac Shoenberg (1880-1963, a British electronic engineer of Belarus descent best known for his contribution to the development of the first fully electronic television system); by descent, the scholar Peter Gatrell and his wife Jane; acquired directly from their estate.
DescriptionThree works in one vol. 8vo (20 x 14 cm; Palkin smaller: block 18.5 x 11.5 cm). Palkin: 29 pp. inc. title, [3] pp. publisher's… Read More

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, travel writer and noted book collector: he was Minister of Education in 1853-58 and he published a catalogue of his library this same year 1868; his 15,000-volume strong collection (incl. about 150 incunabula) is now in the Russian State Library in Moscow. He had just started his military career when Napoleon invaded Russia. As a cadet, Norov took part in a number of battles, and he lost a leg at Borodino.Naturally, Norov felt very strongly about Tolstoy's saga, which was being published. Having read the first three parts that appeared in print by 1868, he thought that Tolstoy's work lacked patriotism, respect towards the defenders of the… Read More

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 and the events of 1805-1807 which, according to the writer, formed the generation of the future participants of the Decembrists revolt in 1825.By the end of 1864, the first part of the novel that would later become War and Peace was almost completely ready. In October 1864, Tolstoy writes a letter to Mikhail Katkov, founder of Russkii Vestnik periodical, offering to publish his new work for a very high, unprecedented fee at the time -- 300 rubles per printed page. Katkov, after long negotiations, agrees to these terms because Tolstoy was already very popular among readers and the publication of such a writer could significantly increase… Read More

First edition of this socio-political play, admired by the Tsar and banned by the tsarist censorship for the stage until 1895.
The play was based on the criminal case of a peasant from the Tula province, Efrem Koloskov, whom Tolstoy visited in prison. According to the materials of the criminal case, considered in the Tula district court, Koloskov was convicted for the murder of the baby whom he had from his own stepdaughter. Alexander III, after hearing the play being read for the Royal family, called it "A marvellous piece!".
In 1888, before the play was staged in Russia, it appeared in major European theatres, including the "Theatre libre" in Paris, under the title "La Puissance des Tenebres". The social focus of the play links it to the exploration of working classes by Hugo and Zola, the writers Tolstoy greatly admired.
DescriptionSmall 8vo (16.8 x 11.3cm). 198 pp. including title; occasional staining, mostly foxing, minor tear to one leaf without loss of text, a few leaves dog eared at bottom.… Read More

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 one of the drafts Anna is called Pushkina: Tolstoy gave her physical features of Pushkin's eldest daughter Maria ("the little wilful tendrils of her curly hair that would always break free about her neck and temples", hereafter trans. C.Garnett). Several drafts opened with a scene at a farm fair: Ordyntsev (future Levin) is exhibiting his livestock and by chance meets Alabin (future Stiva). In another draft, Tatiana (future Anna) leaves her husband for Balashov (future Vronsky), gets a divorce, but, unhappy in the company of her new dissolute friends, drowns herself in the Neva river. Eventually, Tolstoy came to choices that had made the… Read More

First separate edition of Tolstoy's answer to Chekhov – a very good example of this large-format edition, unopened in the charming art-nouveau wrappers and illustrated with plates celebrating the author: three portraits and a view of his tomb in the woods. Edited by Vladimir Chertkov, Tolstoy's literary executor, author of the preface and a major figure in Tolstoy's late publishing history.
According to Tolstoy's daughter Alexandra, the impetus for the birth of the play was Tolstoy's response to Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1900. Noting that it 'lacked action', Tolstoy was "suddenly seized with the desire to write a play which had been in his mind since the middle of the nineties. He immediately made an outline, based on a [true] story. … It concerned a decent, upright woman married to a weak man, a drunkard. Abandoned by him, and in love with another man, the woman persuaded her husband, when he reappeared, to pretend suicide in order that she might remarry. When the fraud… Read More

Drink on stage: the first edition of Tolstoy's first play. A rare appearance of this fragile booklet, in the original wrappers.The First Distiller is a comedy on the evils of drink. Its first performances, in an open-air theatre, are said to have been so popular that censors became concerned and banned subsequent performances.Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness – the only other play published in his lifetime – was written later in the same year. Tolstoy would have published more plays, but found censors particularly critical of his dramatic works.
Provenance Aleksandr Bogodurov (1873-1952, Nizhny Novgorod landowner; stamp and manuscript shelf mark on the front wrapper; stamp in the margin of p.1) – 'O' (stamp on the front wrapper and margin of p.1); Eden Martin (prominent American collector of Russian, American and English literature).
Description16mo (17 x 11.8 cm). A few leaves coming loose; some creases. Original illustrated pink paper wrappers printed in red and black (some creasing and light… Read More