MANDELSTAM AND GUMILEV
[POETS’ GUILD.]
Tsekh Poetov I [ and II-III].
Berlin, S. Efron, 1922[-3].
Two vols, 8vo, pp. 89, [7]; 114, [6], with initial and terminal blanks in each volume; fine copies in the original stiff paper wrappers, covers stamped gilt with the publisher’s device, original printed glassine jackets, chipped.
First edition. The first Poets’ Guild had been formed in 1911 with members including Gumilev, Gorodetsky and Mandelstam, the core of whom became known as the Acmeists.
‘With the coming of the First World War and the Revolution, Guild meetings ceased’, (Terras), though publishing continued for another year. Part I here comprises work from this first incarnation of the Guild, including two poems (‘Tristia’ and ‘Cherepakha’) and an essay by Mandelstam, and poems by Sologub, Kuzmin, and Blok.
Towards the end of 1920 in St Petersburg some of the poets who had been part of the original Guild decided to re-form, the founder members being Gumilev, Ivanov, Lozinsky and Otsup. The new Guild issued several almanacs: Novyi Giperborei (1921), Drakon (1921), and the present work. Parts II and III here contain work written since around 1918, including six poems and an essay by Gumilev, who had been arrested and executed by the Cheka in August 1921. Mandelstam later followed a similar fate, exiled in 1934, finally arrested and sent to his death in a gulag in 1938.
