ESENIN ATTACKED
KLIUEV, Nikolai Alekseevich.
Chetvertyi Rim [The Fourth Rome].
St Petersburg, “Epokha”, 1922.
12mo, pp. 23; a very good copy in the original printed wrappers, minor dust-soiling.
First edition of Klyuev’s attack on Esenin.
‘Esenin recognized Klyuev as his “teacher”, but Klyuev rejected Esenin’s later “hooligan” manner, and the strained (and possibly homosexual) relations of the two men ultimately contributed strongly to Esenin’s suicide. Klyuev’s long poem “The Fourth Rome” is an attack on what Klyuev saw as Esenin’s betrayal of the peasant ideal. Later, when Esenin committed suicide, Klyuev wrote his powerful “Lament for Esenin” and recited it at the memorial service’ (Terras).
Tarasenkov, p. 177.
