SHKAPSKAIA, Maria Mikhailovna.
Krov’-ruda [Blood-ore].
St Petersburg & Berlin, Epokha, 1922.
Small, square 8vo, pp. 29, [3]; a good copy, somewhat shaken, stitching loose, in the original printed paper wrappers, gilt (gilding chipped and worn, affecting lettering).
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Krov’-ruda [Blood-ore].
First edition of a collection of twenty-one poems by Maria Shkapskaya (1881–1952).
The word ‘krov’’ (‘blood’) is recurrent throughout this vividly carnal work, appearing in almost every poem; several pieces grant an insight into the nervous disorder of the poet’s mother. ‘Shkapskaia’s poetry is situated entirely in a woman’s world – a world of blood, toil, love for one’s children, and solidarity with all other women, who are perceived as kindred. Women figures like Eve … are remythologized to incarnate the necessary feminine links in a chain of blood flowing through time and generations (Heldt, ‘Motherhood in a Cold Climate’, in The Russian Review 51:2 (1992), p. 164).
Tarasenkov, p. 417.
