Our Notes & References

First edition with the unexpurgated original text, the second overall following a substantially censored first edition in 1915.

Before the 1917 revolution Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) had been a “regular scandal-maker” (his own words) of the Futurist school, but by 1918 his revolutionary voice found endorsement in this uncensored edition of his key poem and first major work.

The poem was composed in a fit of frustrated love for artist Maria Denisova, imploding into a rage at the world. His introduction touts the text as a “catechism for contemporary art”, and restores his titles for each of the previously unnamed quadrants of the work: “Down with your love”, “Down with your art”, “Down with your system”, and “Down with your religion.”

Scarce. The 1915 censored version appears in a bare handful of auction records, but this 1918 version appears to be even rarer, with no other copy recorded at auction. WorldCat gives 6 locations worldwide. Copies are known with and without the “uncensored” label to the front wrapper, with no priority established (or maybe did the label fall off sometimes?).

Provenance

Robert Eden Martin (b. 1940; American lawyer and noted collector of Russian, British and American literature works)