Search Results: Titles starting with I from PY Rare Books

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 prepared by the author himself and finalised by his wife Vera after his death in 1977. Nabokov, who "for a long time considered himself first and foremost as a poet" (Malikova), left a considerable poetic legacy: his "almost complete edition of poetry" (Vera Nabokov), Stikhi, consists of almost 250 poems, from which the author of this samizdat chose 40, and even added a title and a table of content for this smaller, 'home edition' for personal use. A couple of titles in French is also added in text manually for the author may not have had any Latin type.
Most of the selected poems describe narrator's longing for home, reflections about… Read More

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 figures of the feminist theatre movement in France.Only 500 copies printed: scarce, especially on the market, as we could not trace any example at auction outside Russia, including France. Worldcat locates only 5 copies: 2 in the US (NYPL and Pennsylvania) and 3 in France (Université Côte d'Azur, Strasbourg, BnF).Aleksandr Pushkin's (1799-1837) first complete book, Ruslan and Ludmila was published in 1820 and sold out almost immediately. In 1823, a French translation of an extract appeared in the Anthologie russe by Dupré de Saint-Maure: this was Pushkin's very first appearance in Western Europe. The full French… Read More

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 translation, which Akhmatova then translated into appropriate verses. The demand for such a niche subject, prompting an expanded edition so soon after the first, may reflect general interest in Korea following the war on the peninsula; but more likely reflects the enduring demand for any work by Akhmatova, after she had been silenced for so long. With Stalin's death in 1953, the grip of totalitarianism loosened somewhat, and Akhmatova began to be given paid translation work.
ProvenanceAnna Akhmatova (presentation inscription in blue ink to:); Aleksandr Alekseevich Kholodovich (1906-1977, linguist); Robert Eden Martin (b.… Read More

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] Евангулов
[To the talented illustrator of the cover of our book, artist Iv. Ivanov, a gift of this "Campfire" lighting up our minds / 17.IX.1920 / Geor[giy] Evantulov].
Дорогой Ваничка! А дальше не хватило пороху. Р.И. [Рюрик Ивнев (?)].
[Dear Vanichka! To write more I haven't got what it takes. R.I. (Riurik Ivnev?)].

Very rare.
WorldCat locates only one copy, in the Getty research Institute, to which we could add the RNB's copy, uncoloured. Not in Savine.
This collection of… Read More

SUPERB EXAMPLE OF THIS 'MASTERPIECE OF THE RUSSIAN POETIC AVANT-GARDE' (Johnson 25) INSCRIBED BY ILIAZD TO ANDRE SALMON, a talented man of letters, poet and leading art critic.
In excellent condition, with the rare leaflet loosely inserted. One of only 500 copies, this one num. 317.
Zdanevich dedicated the first edition of this poem in zaum ("transmental" language creation, Russian form of literary Dadaism) to his friend, the Russian painter Mikhail Le Dentu, who died tragically in 1917. The total print-run was around 500 copies, and the collage of the cover was handmade by Naum Granovsky on order.
To compose this multi-voiced poem, which traces a journey to the Underworld, Ilyazd designed brilliant typographic writing, making this work one of the essential books of the Russian avant-garde. Ilyazd used capital letters to indicate accented syllables, hence the Russian title is "lidantIU fAram" – with "faram" indicating the semantic field of light. In his edition, Ilyazd used an unprecedented variety… Read More

Long and detailed price list of tobacco products offered in Moscow during Pushkin's time, showing a broad and very international range.
Since English merchants introduced tobacco to Russians in the mid-16th century, this foreign product became extremely popular, from peasantry to the 18th-c. tsarinas. The new trend of smoking tobacco from a pipe was promoted by Alexander I, for whom the court would order one-meter-long pipes. Since that time, a chibouk, or Turkish-style pipe, together with an ottoman, a flat sofa with cushions, became an obligatory attribute of a nobleman. Alexander Pushkin, Russia's greatest poet and an amateur of tobacco, begins his depiction of Eugene Onegin's study with a pipe:
"A pipe of amber from Istanbul,
China and bronzes fill the table,
And to delight the sensual
Perfumes in finely-crafted crystal…"
Oddly enough, with such love for tobacco, Russia did not have its own tobacco industry until the early 19th century. Peter the Great attempted to organize the first tobacco… Read More