Our Notes & References

Two collections of poetry by the most talented writer of Russia’s Romanov dynasty. Scarce editions, here in a choice example, finely (and unusually) bound together.

The initials “K. R.” first appeared in print in 1882: behind them stood the Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov (1858-1915), son of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, Viceroy of Poland, and grandson of Emperor Nicholas I. Although initially forced by his family into a military career, Konstantin Romanov was always more interested in the arts. He was an influential patron, heading the Russian Musical Society and founding several literary societies. Romanov translated works by Schiller, Goethe, and Shakespeare, wrote and directed his own plays, and was, above all, a dedicated poet. He achieved particular success with lyrics for songs by composers such as Tchaikovsky, who was a personal friend (and who, like the Grand Duke, was forced to hide his homosexuality for the sake of his career). As Tchaikovsky wrote, the poems of K. R. “simply beg to be set to music” (Kuzmina).

Konstantin Romanov was one of several poets of the 1880s whose work “treated broad themes of regret over lost happiness and anxiety over future destiny,” echoing the tonality and imagery of Fet and Maikov (Connolly). The author’s poetry, though published anonymously, met with critical acclaim. However, after his identity became known towards the end of his life, he became the target of revolutionaries, and many copies of his poetry were destroyed by the Bolsheviks.

The first volume (1879-1885) of the two collections presented here contains lyric poems along with songs on biblical motifs, letters in verse, the cycle “In Venice,”, the dramatic excerpt “Manfred Reborn,” and verses from regimental life. The second, shorter collection (1879-1885) includes poems of similar genres, along with the longer work “Sebastian the Martyr.”

The first collection here is in the first edition offered for sale; it is marked “second edition” (like in Kilgour), because it first appeared in 1886 in a limited printrun distributed by the Grand Duke himself to friends and critics whose opinions he valued. It was reprinted at the occasion of the publication of the second collection, which is here in its first edition. These two collections, printed on luxury paper by the State press, one of the best of the country, are usually bound separately.

A further two collections would be published later: one covering poems written in 1889-99 (Kilgour 535) and one for 1900-10 (Kilgour 536).

Uncommon outside Russia, as we couldn’t find any copy at auction; WorldCat shows a handful of copies of each edition, most, but not all, in the USA, and usually not together.

Bibliography

Kilgour 532 and 533; Connolly, J. “The Nineteenth Century: Between Realism and Modernism, 1880-95,” in Charles A. Moser, ed., The Cambridge History of Russian Literature, 2^nd ed., revised and enlarged, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992, 333-86; Kuzmina, L. “Velikii kniaz Konstantin Konstantinovich (K. R.) (1858-1915),” pushkinskijdom.ru.