U-u-u-u-u-u... in first edition
Publication: Beresniak for YMCA, Paris, 1969.
Uncommon first book edition in Russian of Bulgakov’s suppressed satirical masterpiece. A lovely copy in its original wrappers by Annenkov.
£1,450
In stock
First separate edition in Russian of Bulgakov’s suppressed satirical masterpiece, originally written in 1925, three years after the creation of the USSR and just a year after Lenin’s death. Unpublishable in Sobviet Union until 1987, the text had only been printed in Russian in clandestine ‘samizdat’ editions, and in two European magazines in 1968, the Frankfurt journal ‘Grani’, and Flegon’s London journal ‘Student’.
This uncommon edition begins with a short biographical introduction, and its famous wrappers with a crossed-out heart design to the front cover were designed by Iurii Annenkov (1889-1974), a great, polyvalent Russian artist, much active in avant-gardist movements in Russia and then France after his emigration in 1921. The 1971 second YMCA edition had wrappers repeating the crossing but without the striking red touch of the heart.
Item number
2130
Octavo (18.4 x 13.6 cm). 159 pp. incl. first blank leaf, half-title, title and portrait plate.
Binding
Original publisher’s cream wrappers printed in black and red after Iu. Annekov.
Condition
Wrappers a bit rubbed and lightly stained, spine a bit darker and slightly creased as usual, with short splits at head and foot; text leaves in excellent, fresh condition.
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.
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