MANDELSTAM AND GUMILEV
[POETS’ GUILD.]
Tsekh Poetov I [–III].
Berlin, S. Efron, 1922[–3].
Two volumes, 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 of this literary almanack from the newly re-established Poets’ Guild, first formed in 1911 and 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’, though publishing continued for another year (Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature). 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 almanacks: 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 camp in 1938.
