Our Notes & References
The first edition of one of Tolstoy’s greatest and most popular short stories, with the original wrappers.
This copy bears the correct first issue points: the printed wrapper is priced 20 kopeks, and the text shows the printed censorship date of 17 February 1895. Master and Man proved hugely popular, selling 15,000 copies within four days of its publication on 05 March 1895. To meet demand, Posrednik – Tolstoy’s own publishing house – issued another edition on 09 March, priced at 3 kopeks.
Master and Man reflect aspects of Tolstoy’s own spiritual conversion, and is sometimes seen as a companion piece to Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)
Provenance
Prochian (bookplate); Robert Eden Martin (b. 1940; American lawyer and noted collector of Russian, British and American literature works).
Item number
1334