First edition of Tolstoy's successful play on wine and some of its effects... Lovely example in wrappers. Scarce.
First Russian book edition -banned- of Fletcher's famous -and banned- description of Russia which first appeared in 1591. A very rare edition, printed in Geneva by Russian revolutionaries, in a fine, fresh example.
![Image for Akhmatova, Brodsky and others, Important poems and other texts, incl. Poem bez geroia [Poem Without a Hero], first editions. #1](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1354-300x260.jpg)
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.
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](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/3249_1-300x402.jpg)
ORWELL, George, György ANTAL (transl.) and Zoltán SZABÓ (introduction)
Ezerkilencszáznyolcvannégy [Nineteen Eighty-Four]
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.
ORVELL, Dzhordzh [George ORWELL]
Pamiati Katalonii [with] Vspominaia Ispanskuiu voinu [Homage to Catalonia [with] Looking Back on the Spanish War]
Clandestine, CIA-funded first edition in Russian of Orwell's memoirs about the Spanish Civil War. An important edition with a secret publication history.
MANDELSHTAM, Osip and Abram TERTS [pseud. Andrei SINIAVSKII]
Chetvertaia proza [WITH:] Literaturnyi protsess v Rossii [Fourth Prose [AND:] Literary Process in Russia]
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.
First edition of these excellent and uncompromising caricatures of war, by the great provocative German artist. A fine example, with the original fragile envelope and inscribed by Grosz to an important anarchist and collector.
Lovely copy of this first edition, rare as only 1 copy in the US. An important work gathering Ukrainian proverbs and other phrases never published before or in another form. A fine scientific work with very good provenance.
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"].
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.
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](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/3010_1-300x393.jpg)
Tolstoy banned in Russia: a rare edition of this novella, kept in its fragile wrappers. Printed in Leipzig; and also an unusual example of decorative wrappers on a Russian literary work.
![Image for [JAZZ IN USSR] SAKHAROV G. Jazzy translation. Samizdat, USSR, ca. 1976-80. More than 300 leaves. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2883_1-300x242.jpg)
Rare thick Soviet samizdat on Western jazz, giving a glimpse of the material circulated in innovative, underground circles of the late USSR.