BRIUSOV, Valerii Iakovlevich.

Mig. Stikhi 1920–1921 g. [The Instant. Verses of 1920–1921].

Berlin and St Petersburg, Z.I. Grzhebin, 1922.

First edition. The post-Revolutionary period, spanning the years shortly before his death in 1924, was one of intense poetic activity for Bryusov. Of the work from this period, ‘several poems are devoted to recent history and current events – to the Revolution, the famine years, the death...

£200

SOLOGUB, Fedor Kuzmich, pseud. [Fedor TETERNIKOV].

Koster dorozhnyi [A wayside fire].

Moscow and Petrograd, [‘Tvorchestvo’,] 1922.

First edition, containing three cycles of verse by the leading Symbolist: ‘Vneshnii krug’ (Outer circle), ‘Put’’ (Path), and ‘Predel’ (Limit). This was one of the last collections of Sologub’s poems to appear before the state banned any further publication of his work in 1923....

£550

ROMANOV, Panteleimon Sergeevich.

Domovoi [The house-sprite].

Moscow & Leningrad, “Zemlia i Fabrika”, [1926].

First edition, published in the ‘Worker-Peasant Library’ series, containing four short stories: Domovoi (‘The house-sprite’), Opis’ (‘The list’), Obshchestvennye raboty (‘Social work’, a fragment from Rus’), and Druzhnyi narod (‘A friendly people’).

£350

[HARSDÖRFFER, Georg Philipp.]

Peristromata turcica, sive Dissertatio emblematica, praesentem Europae statum ingeniosis coloribus...

Scarce first and only Latin edition of this polemical pro-Richelieu pamphlet with six engraved emblems in red and black within elaborate tapestry borders, respectively representing the empires of Turkey, Rome, Spain-Germany, Poland, and the rest of Europe.

£2000

'DON-AMINADO', pseud. [Aminad Petrovich SHPOLIANSKII].

Neskuchnyi sad [Bare garden].

Paris, [Imprimerie E.I.R.P.,] 1935.

First edition, no. 38 of 150 copies, a poetical collection by the émigré poet, satirist and feuilletonist Aminad Shpolyansky.

£150

[PUSHKIN, Aleksandr Sergeevich.] BRIUSOV, Valerii Iakovlevich (editor).

Litseiskie stikhi Pushkina, po rukopisiam Moskovskago...

Moscow, “Skorpion”, 1907.

First edition – the symbolist poet Valery Briusov’s critical notes to volume I of the Academy edition of Pushkin’s Works (1899), which had included his Lycée poems 1812-17.

£350

BALZAC, Honoré de, and Fedor Kuz’mich SOLOGBUB, pseud. [Fedor TETERNIKOV], translator.

Ozornye skazki [Contes...

Petersburg, “Poliarnaia Zvezda”, 1922.

First edition, very rare, of Sologub’s translation of two of Balzac’s satirical Contes drolatiques, ‘The fair Imperia’ and ‘The fair Imperia married’.

£500

IVANOV, Viacheslav Ivanovich.

Mladenchestvo [Infancy].

St Petersburg, “Alkonost”, 1918.

First edition. The poet, translator, critic and scholar Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866–1949) was one of the leaders of the Symbolist movement and its principal theorist.

£600

BLOK, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich.

O sovremennom sostoianii russkogo simvolizma [On the current state of Russian symbolism].

St Petersburg, “Alkonost”, 1921.

First edition, a lecture read by Blok in April 1910 before the Society of Zealots of the Artistic Word, a discussion group formed by Gumilev, Blok and others in 1909.

£150

GOR’KII, Maksim, pseud. [Aleksei Maksimovich PESHKOV].

Zhaloby [Complaints].

N.p., Rabochee Knigoizdatel’stvo, 1916.

An ephemeral publication of a short story by Gorky, first published in four parts in Berlin, 1910-1911.

£200

SHAKESPEARE, William, and Boris Leonidovich PASTERNAK, translator.

Otello, venetsianskii mavr. Perevod s angliiskogo...

Moscow, Ogiz, 1945.

First edition of Pasternak’s translation. ‘Pasternak was attached to Shakespeare for all his creative life. In his best early verse collection My Sister Life (pub. 1922), the poem “English Lessons” featured Desdemona and Ophelia “letting their passions slip from their shoulders...

£1000

MUSSET, Alfred de, and Nikolai Porfir’evich GREKOV, translator.

Rolla, poema … perevod N.P. Grekova [Rolla,...

Moscow, F.B. Miller, 1864.

First edition in Russian of Musset’s Rolla (1833), a poetic reinterpretation of the Don Juan myth, translated by the poet Nikolai Porfir’evich Grekov (1810–1866).

£1750

SHIRMAN, Grigorii Iakovlevich.

Klinopis’ molnii [Cuneiform of Lightnings].

Moscow, All-Russian Union of Poets, 1926.

First edition. A friend of Esenin and Mariengof, Shirman (1888–1956) graduated from the medical faculty at Moscow University in 1912 and worked as a doctor in the city. He was arrested four times (1927, 1937, 1941, 1949), but was released each time without charge. His first book of verse, Mashina...

£250

SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

O blazhenstve imushchago: poeziia Z.N. Gippius [On the bliss of the propertied: the poetry of...

Moscow, “Al’tsiona”, [1912].

First edition, a critical essay by Shaginian published in the same year as Orientalia (advertised here), the collection of poetry that brought her fame.

£350

BRIUSOV, Valerii Iakovlevich.

Kratkii kurs nauki o stikhe ... Chast’ pervaia. Chastnaia metrika i ritmika russkago iazyka [A...

Moscow, “Al’tsiona”, 1919.

Very rare first edition, the only chapter to be published of Briusov’s ‘short course in the study of poetry’.

£120

VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouet de. SOLOGUB, Fedor Kuzmich, pseud. [Fedor TETERNIKOV], translator.

Kandid, ili optimizm....

St Petersburg, “Panteon”, 1909.

First edition, very rare, of Sologub’s translation of Candide.

£500

[ALMANACK.]

Al’manakh dlia vsekh. Kniga vtoraia [Almanack for all. Second book].

St Petersburg, “Novyi zhurnal dlia vsekh”, 1911.

First edition, rare, the second of two annual literary almanacks with this title, with poems by Blok, Gorodetsky and Kuzmin, and short fiction by Chulkov, Gusev, Count Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Ivan Poroshin.

£200

MOROZOV, Nikolai Aleksandrovich.

Zvezdnyia pesni … [Celestial Songs].

Moscow, “Zadruga”, 1920.

First published in 1910, this second, enlarged edition is the ‘first complete edition’ of Morozov’s poetry, bringing the collection up-to-date (i.e. 1919). We offer volume I; a second appeared in 1921.

£120

RAFALOVICH, Sergei L’vovich.

Avgust. Stikhotvoreniia [August. Poems].

Berlin, L.D. Frenkel, 1924.

First edition: a rare collection from the prolific if little-known poet and theatre critic, including a piece on the death of Blok.

£100

IVANOV, Vsevolod Viacheslavovich, and Viktor Borisovich SHKLOVSKII.

Iprit. Roman. Vypusk I [– IX] [Mustard Gas. A novel....

Moscow, Gosizdat, [1925].

First edition, a complete set of a rare satirical science fiction novel, issued serially.

£2500