ROBIN HOOD
[GOR’KII, Maksim, pseud. [Aleksei Maksimovich PESHKOV], and Nikolai Stepanovich GUMILEV.]
Ballady o Robin Gude [Ballads of Robin Hood].
St Petersburg, “Vsemirnaia Literatura”, 1919.
12mo, pp. 97, [3], [3 (advertisements)]; light browning throughout; in the original printed wrappers; spine repaired with loss at foot, tear to top of front wrapper repaired (old tape mark from previous repair), booksellers’ marks to back cover.
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Ballady o Robin Gude [Ballads of Robin Hood].
First edition, very rare, of a collection of translations of twelve popular songs featuring Robin Hood, published in the early Soviet series Vsemirnaia Literaura (‘Worldwide Literature’), edited by Gumilev and with a ten-page introduction by Gorky.
After discussing the paradox of the ‘good’ robber in literature and the popular mind, Gorky turns to Robin Hood, a character unlike famous Russian bandits such as Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev. ‘The Russian people, languishing for 250 years under the Tartar yoke, never created or held in their heart a hero the like of Robin Hood’ (p. 14, trans.).
The translations are by Gumilev (2), Adamovich, Georgy Ivanov, Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky (7), and Aleksandr Piotrovsky.
Very rare: only a microfilm listed in OCLC.
