ROZENGEIM, Mikhail Pavlovich.
Stikhotvoreniia [Poems] …
St Petersburg, Artillery Department Press, 1858.
8vo, pp. [7], ‘3’-‘266’, [3], with a half-title and a final errata leaf; a few spots and stains, later cutting of a German translation of ‘Albion’ pasted at end of contents; a very good copy in contemporary quarter red roan and blue marbled boards, spine worn, front joint cracking.
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Stikhotvoreniia [Poems] …
First edition of Rozengeim’s first book, very rare, a collection of seventy-six poems of patriotic martial mood.
Rozengeim (1820–1887) had published his first poems in 1837 in Syn Otechestva while at Cadet School (in the footsteps of Lermontov, six years his senior), but modesty and a long military career had kept him from further publication until the second half of the 1850s, when he began to contribute to periodicals.
Among the poems here are two addressed, posthumously, ‘To Lermontov’ pp. 132-5, several translations from Pierre-Jean de Beranger, and a number of pieces on the Caucasus and Ukraine. Despite a harsh critical reception, especially from Dobrolyubov, who travestied him in Svistok as ‘Konrad Lilienschwager’ [= Lily-brother-in-law, a parody of Rosen-oheim = Rose-uncle], his poems achieved a certain popular success, and were set to music as folk songs and by Glière. Further expanded editions followed in 1864, 1882 and 1889.
Fekula 5234 (this copy). OCLC records three copies, at Columbia, Virginia, and the British Library. There is also a copy at the National Library of Russia.
