Search Results: Titles starting with F from PY Rare Books

The golden age of children's illustration in Russia: a colorful depiction of the advancements of the Soviet collective farming. First edition, in excellent condition.
***Full description kindly provided on request***

A fine series of beautiful portraits and scenes taken by one of the most significant female photographers of her time: first edition of this large-format album published to raise funds for the war relief.
The work opens with an introduction that stands in contrast to the often-hostile messages propagated against the Soviet Union by the West around World War Two: "The USSR often has been called the "family of nations", because more than 150 nationalities live there in harmony. This album will serve as an introduction to a few of these peoples – our Soviet allies".
It was published by the Russian War Relief, which was the largest American agency for foreign war relief established in July 1941, one month after Germany's attack on Russia. For this publication, they worked with the American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904–71), who is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of the Soviet five-year plan and the first American female war photojournalist.
In the… 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

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 work, and a ruthless exposition of contemporary revolutionary movements. The serialisation of this work, in Katkov's periodical The Russian Messenger, broke down when Katkov refused to print 'Stavrogin's Confession', an episode which he found particularly shocking."As a political tract, a portrayal of sick minds, and a study of the manipulation of groups, 'The Possessed' remains Dostoevsky's masterpiece" (Terras).***Customers considering purchasing this item will be given a longer, much more detailed note on the work, its background, its influence***DescriptionThree parts in one volume 8vo (21.4 x 15.5… Read More

FIRST EDITION OF THE AENEID IN ARMENIAN; A BEAUTIFULLY BOUND EXAMPLE WITH ARISTOCRATIC PROVENANCE.
This translation of Virgil's masterpiece was completed by Etvart Hiwrmiwz (Edward Hurmuzian, 1799-1876); it is written in verses of classical Armenian, and explained with an introduction and abundant notes.
It is also illustrated: by three plates due to French artists (the portrait even published by Furne in Paris) and a lithographed frontispiece and illustrated title created specifically for this edition. The edition was reprinted in 1878.
Scarce: we could not trace any other example on the market in recent years. About a dozen copies can be found in public institutions worldwide, including a handful in the US, and apparently none in Italy. Absent from Princeton's Junius Spencer Morgan Collection of Virgil's works.
Provenance'From Percy Radcliffe to his father, June 5th 1848' (i.e. Joseph Percival Pickford Radcliffe, 1824-1908, later 3rd Baronet; manuscript note on flyleaf; given to:); Sir Joseph… Read More

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 could not trace any other copy at auction in the West, and only three in Russia.
"Mayakovsky was very fond of this little book; it was always on the bookshelf of the desk in his room on Lubyanka lane" (Mayakovsky museum, our translation here and below).
The leading poet of Revolutionary Russia, Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) attempted to get to the States three times: twice his visa was rejected and the third time he managed to obtain a visa to Mexico first. On 21 June 1925, Mayakovsky departed the French port of Saint-Nazaire for Mexico on the transatlantic ship "Espagne". The present poem "Khristofor Kolomb" ["Christopher Columbus"] was… Read More

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 Europe to hold a government office and the first female member of the American Philosophical Society.
The first edition of Campe's celebrated anthology for children came out in Russian in 1783 (Part I) and 1785 (Part 2).It was published by Dashkova's Academy of Sciences and was an instant bestseller, as it was the first Russian anthology of short literary texts intended specifically for children, just preceding the children's magazine Detskoe chtenie dlia serdtsa i razuma (1785-89) and the later Grech's Izbrannyia mesta iz russkikh sochinenii (1812). Campe's German Kleine Kinderbibliothek, taking 12 volumes… Read More

The very rare atlas to the first edition of Lisianskii's voyage, "a very important and rare work on the history of Alaska in general and Sitka in particular" (Lada-Mocarski).
A very good complete example.Detailed note kindly provided on request.Provenance
The author? (large ink signature in Russian to title); Tambovskoe glavnoe narodnoe utschilischche [and] Fundamentalnaia biblioteka tambovskoi gubernskoi gimnasii (pre-Soviet blue ink stamps to title and wrapper, black ink inscription to title, shelfmarks to title, 'Atlas Lisianskago' [Atlas of Lisianskii] written in black ink to upper wrapper); European private collection (since the 1990s).
Description
Large folio (68 x 52 cm). Engraved title page, 13 maps on 12 leaves, including 4 double-page, and 3 engraved plates. Printed on thick paper of varying stock, some leaves of light blue paper. Contemporary blue-green marbled wrappers, kept in modern leather-backed solander box.
Condition
The volume has been folded in its middle at some point, leaving a… 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

Exhaustive collection of striking, informative, curious and amusing popular Russian prints following the Russo-Turkish and Caucasian wars, but also covering a large variety of subjects in a very graphic way.
Rare: we could find only two copies of this album sold in 1975 and 2008 (the latter missing a plate); Worldcat locates only two physical copies (Indiana University, BnF).
The so-called lubok, or popular folk prints, appeared in Russia in the early 17th century and quickly became popular with peasants and urban lower classes for their accessible anecdotic images and narratives on a broad variety of themes. Sometimes reprinted many times over the years, they would often decorate peasants', merchants' and bourgeois' houses and even replace icons, books and newspapers.
The successful publisher and educator Ivan Sytin (1851-1932) was one of the largest producers and distributors of printed lubok in the second half of the 19th century; he presented his prints at various exhibitions, including the… Read More

First edition thus of this interesting manual to get by in Pushkin's St. Petersburg, published by the Russian police. An earlier version was published in 1811, with a slightly different title and including a short historical overview of the Russian literature. The present, reworked version, became popular and was reprinted several times during more than 50 years. The dialogues chosen in the manual give clear hints at its aimed lectorate: the high society of St. Petersburg (specifically). As most of its members spoke French, the book must have appealed to wider audience than only the French native speakers. It includes, for example, how to give instructions to one's barber (and complain), or how to ask directions in the street. A whole dialogue is focusing on the city sights of the Russian capital (but nothing on Moscow). The educated visitor would also be able to ask for the "salon littéraire du Sr. Pluchart à la grande Morskaya" (Pluchart was then one of the foremost publishers, later printing, in… Read More

Fine example of the first English edition of Grigoriev's celebrated extended cycle of Russian portraits. Limited to 500 copies only, this one num. 7.
Faces of Russia started its life as Grigoriev's initial project, the album titled 'Raseya' (a slang word for peasant Russia), published in Petrograd in 1918. At the time, Grigoriev was already scandalously famous: in 1913 he was expelled from the St Petersburg Art Academy and invited to take part in 'Mir Iskusstva' exhibition; in 1916 he produced one of his iconic paintings – a portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold. In 'Raseya', he presented harsh, Cubist-style portraits of Russian peasants – a stark contrast to the idealised image of the spiritual Russian peasant popular in the West at the time. However, the album was neither in line with the Bolshevik vision of the Russian peasant class.
In 1919 Grigoriev left Russia and settled in Europe, where he published the 2nd, expanded, edition of 'Raseya': it appeared in Berlin in 1921 in Russian and in 1922 in… Read More

Fresh example of this richly illustrated work dedicated to the fifty-year jubilee of the judicial reform. It comprises memoirs of the people who were directly involved in the implementation of the reform by compiling judicial statutes and supervising their execution. In his work Koni (1844 - 1927), Russian jurist and judge, also included biographies of the most prominent pioneers of the reform, such as D.A. Rovinskij, M.E .Kovalevskij, D.N. Nabokov, I. Urusova and F.N. Plevako, many of whom he knew personally. ProvenanceAvenir Nizoff (émigré, pianist, who lived in Edmonton, Canada, in the second half of the 20th century, and gathered a very large library of Russian works of all kinds).DescriptionQuarto (28.5 x 22 cm). [4], IV, 4, 296, 22, 2 pp., with 27 lithographed plates. Publisher's cloth; slightly rubbed.

A lovely association copy, inscribed by the author, of a very rare travel account in the heart of Russian Central Asia.
We are not aware of another copy, whether on the market or in libraries (not in WorldCat).
Educated in St Petersburg, the young Geier (1860-1908) was arrested for participating in the anti-government circle Narodnaia Volia and exiled to Tashkent, then the centre of the Syr-Darya Oblast of the Russian Empire. Geier there worked as a secretary of the Statistical Committee and progressively became an authority on Turkestan's history and ethnography, particularly on Kazakh culture.
"Ot Tashkenta do Gavy" was Geier's first detailed publication on the region. Written in the form of a travel journal, it describes the route from Tashkent via Khujand (modern Tajikistan), Kokand and Andijan (modern Uzbekistan) to the Arslanbob valley and kishlak (settlement) Gava in Kyrgyzstan. Geier's interesting observations cover in particular some industrial aspects of the Fergana valley, the exploitation… Read More