Our Notes & References

A fine Imperial and poetic provenance for this lovely and rare anthology of Russian poems, inscribed by the translator to a Grand-Duchess of Russia, Countess Sophie von Merenberg, also granddaughter of Alexander Pushkin: “Vnuchke tvortsa ‘Onegina’ na dobruiu pamiat ot skromnogo perevodchika. Germaniia, 27 sentiabria 1908” [To the granddaughter of the creator of “Onegin” for good memories. Germany, 27 September 1908].

Countess Sophie von Merenberg (1868-1927) was famously married to Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich (1861-1929), a grandson of Nicholas I, who thus contracted a morganatic marriage. This sent them in exile, first in the south of France and then in London, where they lived in the great Kenwood House.

The translator, about whom we couldn’t find much information, chose mostly works by Pushkin himself, Apukhtin, and A. Tolstoy; he also included poems by Maikov, Dmitriev, Fet-Shenshin and Balmont.

Rare: WorldCat locates copies only in 4 libraries outside Russia (3 of them in Germany), apparently none in the Americas.

Provenance

Countess Sophie von Merenberg (manuscript presentation from translator on the title) and her husband Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich; by descent.