20th century: Dissidence & Emigre | PY Rare Books

Image for M. BULGAKOV. Heart of a Dog, first Russian book edition. Paris, YMCA, 1969. #2

U-u-u-u-u-u... in first edition

Sobache serdtse [Heart of a Dog]

Beresniak for YMCA, Paris, 1969. £1,450

Uncommon first book edition in Russian of Bulgakov's suppressed satirical masterpiece. A lovely copy in its original wrappers by Annenkov.

Image for Akhmatova, Brodsky and others, Important poems and other texts, incl. Poem bez geroia [Poem Without a Hero], first editions. #1

The Pantheon of the Silver Age - a complete set

AKHMATOVA, Anna, Isaac BABEL, Iosif BRODSKII, Osip MANDELSHTAM, Vladimir NABOKOV, Boris PASTERNAK, Marina TSVETAEVA et al

Vozdushnye Puti [Airways. Almanach. Vols I-V]

New York, 1960-67. £1,500

The first publication of Akhmatova's 'Poem Without a Hero' [Poem bez geroia] - as well as many other works by some of the best Russian poets and authors of the 20th century: a complete set of this important literary almanac, rare so.

Image for Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog, first publication in Russian, Flegon, 1968. #1

U-u-u-u-u-u....: the first publication

BULGAKOV, Mikhail

Sobache serdtse [Heart of a Dog]

London, Student, Flegon Press, 1968. £1,000

First publication in Russian of Bulgakov's suppressed satirical masterpiece, banned in Soviet Union until 20 years later.

Image for Melgunov, Towards a Palace Coup, first edition, 1931 #1

In lovely condition

MELGUNOV, Sergei

Na putiakh k dvortsovomu perevorotu (zagovory pered revoliutsii 1917 goda) [On the Paths Towards a Palace Coup (plots ahead of the 1917 Revolution)]

Rodnik, Parizh, 1931. £175

Rather objective historical analysis of the Russian political plots around Tsar Nicholas II before the revolution. A fine example of the first edition.

Image for MANDELSHTAM, Kamen [Stone], first edition, Skt. Peterburg, 1913. #2

The very rare first edition

MANDELSHTAM, Osip Emilevich

Kamen [Stone]

Akme, Skt Peterburg, 1913. £12,500

First edition of the first book by one of Russia's greatest 20th-century poets. A very good example of this rare edition.

Image for BELZEN, Geroi Smutnogo Vremeni, album of Russian caricatures of the Civil War, Berlin, 1921. #2

Large political caricatures of a troubled year

BELZEN, Ia. Ia. (artist)

Geroi Smutnogo Vremeni [Heroes of Troubled Times]

Golos Rossiii, Berlin, 1921. £1,950

Very rare album of full-page satirical illustrations of the situation in Russia during the turbulent years of the Civil War. Published in Berlin in 1921, and particularly remarkbale for its even-handed swipe at all participants in the War. Only three copies traced in Western public institutions.

Image for G. ORWELL. [1984 in Hungarian] Ezerkilencszáznyolcvannégy. First translation, Budapest, 1984. #2

Out of stock

Orwell in Communist Hungary

ORWELL, George, György ANTAL (transl.) and Zoltán SZABÓ (introduction)

Ezerkilencszáznyolcvannégy [Nineteen Eighty-Four]

Magyar Október Szabadsajtó, Budapest, 1984.

Pleasant copy of the first Hungarian edition with extensive notes on Orwell - the second overall, both in the same, first translation, both published in 1984 and both rare outside Hungary.

Image for BRODSKY. Ostanovka v pustyne, samizdat. USSR, early 1970s. #2

Out of stock

Samizdat of a future Nobel Prize winner

BRODSKY, Joseph

Ostanovka v pustyne [A halt in the desert]

[Soviet Union, 1970 or early 1970s].

Fine example of a Brdosky's poetry in Soviet samizdat - rare.

Image for ORWELL. Homage to Catalonia. First Russian edition. Louvain/Paris, ca. 1971. #2

Out of stock

With a publication history still unclear

ORVELL, Dzhordzh [George ORWELL]

Pamiati Katalonii [with] Vspominaia Ispanskuiu voinu [Homage to Catalonia [with] Looking Back on the Spanish War]

Rosseels printing, Louvain for "Editions de la Seine, Paris", [c. 1971].

Clandestine, CIA-funded first edition in Russian of Orwell's memoirs about the Spanish Civil War. An important edition with a secret publication history.

Image for MANDELSHTAM & TERTS. Fourth Prose & Literary Process in Russia. Samizdats in Russian, USSR, 1970s-80s. #2

Out of stock

Owning these texts would send you to the Gulag

MANDELSHTAM, Osip and Abram TERTS [pseud. Andrei SINIAVSKII]

Chetvertaia proza [WITH:] Literaturnyi protsess v Rossii [Fourth Prose [AND:] Literary Process in Russia]

[USSR, late 1970s-early 1980s].

A fine samizdat gathering two banned texts from two repressed authors - a dangerous artifact indeed. Very rare, as we couldn't trace other Soviet-time samizdats of these works.

Image for ALEXEIEFF & GENBACH. Satan à Paris. First edition, inscribed. Paris, 1927 #2

Out of stock

Inscribed to Alexeieff

GENBACH, Jean [pseud. of Ernest de GENGENBACH] and Alexandre ALEXEIEFF (artist)

Satan à Paris

H. Meslin, Paris, .

Avec envoi de l'auteur à Alexandre Alexeieff, qui avait dessiné la couverture. Exemplaire de tête, fort désirable, de l'édition originale de roman semi-autobiographique.

Image for LEBEDEFF & ERENBURG. Three Knights and the Shirt. First edition, Russian. Moscow, 1916. #2

Out of stock

French medievalism for Russian audience

LEBEDEV, Ivan (illustrator) and Ilia ERENBURG (translator)

O trekh rytsariakh i o rubakhe [The Three Knights and the Shirt]

Zerna, Moskva, 1916.

First edition of this scarce production, an unusual, very interesting Russian publication by two émigrés based in France during WW1. Fine example, from the "tirage de tête" of only 25 copies on Japon paper

Image for Ilf & Petrov, Ostap Bender: second part of The Golden Calf, first edition in wrappers, Riga, 1931 #1

Out of stock

The Twelve Chairs carry on

ILF i PETROV [ie. Ilya ILF and Evgeny PETROV]

Novyia pokhozhdeniia Ostapa Bendera: Kniga vtoraia romana "Zolotoi telenok" [New Adventures of Ostap Bender: Second part of the novel "The Golden Calf"].

Zhizn i kultura, Riga, 1931.

After "The Twelve Chairs": rare first edition of the second part of "The Golden Calf", Ilf and Petrov's beloved masterpiece of Soviet satire. A lovely example in original wrappers and published outside the Soviet Union.

Image for M. BULGAKOV. Master & Margarita. First complete edition, in the original Russian. Frankfurt, 1969. #2

Out of stock

First complete - with the striking dust-jacket

BULGAKOV, Mikhail

Master i Margarita [Master and Margarita]

Possev-Verlag, Frankfurt/M., 1969.

Very attractive copy of one of the most important editions of this fantastic novel: the first complete edition, by the CIA-backed publisher Posev. Rarely found, here complete with its dust-jacket.

Image for A. AKHMATOVA., Rekviem [Requiem]. First edition, Munich. 1963 #2

Out of stock

Celebrated poetical tamizdat

AKHMATOVA, Anna

Rekviem [Requiem]

L. Andrejeff for T-vo Zarubezhnikh izdanii, Miunkhen, 1963.

First edition of one of Akhmatova's most famous works, considered by many to be her finest. An important tamizdat of one of the best Russian poets; one of 500 copies only.