Antigona
Octavo 17x13 cm., wrappers, 16pp. Superb cover design by Pavel Semenovich Naumov (1884-1942), renowned graphic artist. A prospectus for Hasenclever's play, written in 1916 during the war and staged by Tairov in 1928. A description of the play by Hasenclever, with additional notes by Shenshin for the music, and a six-page essay by Aleksandr Tairov. Photos of the cast are included, with frontispiece portrait of Tairov. OCLC locates one holding worldwide (Harvard). A fine copy.
More from Michael Fagan Fine Art & Rare Books
V tsarskikh pogonakh (In the Tsar’s Epaulettes)
Octavo 19.5x14 cm., decorated boards, 127pp. Two-color photomontage cover by N. Pinus (Natalia Sergeevna Bukharova, 1901-1980). Pinus studied at VKhUTEMAS-VKhUTEIN and was a member of the Artists Union of the USSR. She is best known for her powerful agit-prop posters. She devoted her later life to painting. Along with Valentina Kulagina, she was among the top of the Soviet women photomontage artists of her generation. Viktor Babushkin (1894-1958) was a Soviet editor, author and journalist from Saratov. After a varied background he participated in the First Congress of Soviet writers, headed various newspapers and magazines, and flourished until he was expelled from the party as a double-dealer and participant in the Sapronov leftist opposition, was tried and sentenced for three years in the gulag. Prohibited from writing, he distinguished himself as a mechanic during WWII and received numerous honors. He was finally reinstated in the party and the Writers' Union in 1954. OCLC locates copies at LOC, Columbia. Politiki vraga. (Ocherki I portrety). Vozhdi kapitalistichkoe i soglasatel’skoi v Evropy.
(The Poliics of the Enemy: Leaders of Capitalist and Accommodating Europe; Essays and Portraits). Octavo 19.8x13.5 cm., wrappers, 200pp. Solomon Telingater, front and rear cover and page design, with a photocollage on rear cover and vignettes with photos and drawings on the chapter title pages. This work presents two dozen essays characterizing class enemies --- Western politicians and leading personalities, with Pope Pius blessing them and flanked by police and armed guards. The photocollage depicts social democratic leaders brandishing their strength to keep the capitalist ball rolling. The author Gennady Isaevich Iakov-Geronskii (1900-??) was a journalist. He was arrested twice in the 1940s and sent to labor camps, rearrested in 1961 under Article 70 (undermining Soviet power). Béla Kun was the leader of the Hungarian 1919 revolution and exiled to the USSR; he was arrested and tried as a Trotskyite and shot in 1938. Worldcat locates copies in Princeton, Berliner Staatsbibliothek. Important document Kartoshka
Octavo 16x13 cm., wrappers, (14) pp. Lina-Sofia Samuilovna Neumann (1883-1971) was a children's book author and Russian literary scholar. She was already an established pedagogue before writing her first children's book in 1927, along with expanding literary studies and writings. She went silent after 1937 until 1960, and was only accepted into the Writer's Guild at the age of 78. OCLC locates holdings at Getty, NYPL. Very good+ with sunned spine VOZNIKNOVENIE GORODA. Stikhotvorenaia povest.
Octavo 18x13 cm., boards, 48pp. Cover design by N.O. Iakubovyi Munts. Vladimir Pavlovich Zavodnikov (1904-1969) was a Komsomol poet and war correspondent. The present work, The Emergence of the City, includes photographs of urban building in various stages. OCLC locates two holdings in North America (Stanford, Ohio State Univ). A fine copy 150.000.000
Octavo 18x13.5 cm., wrappers. 70 pp. The first edition of this epic work, published anonymously. Released in 5000 copies, Lenin was nonplussed, and dismissed Mayakovsky as "one of those Futurists" who he detested, and called it "hooligan communism." The poem had tremendous propagandistic effect, however, and proclaimed itself as Russia's Iliad. It was subsequently reprinted, translated into many languages, and has been a subject of study and exposition ever since. This copy fine. Groshki i meshki (Pots & Bags)
Octavo 20x15 cm., wrappers, (12) pp. Iakov Godin (1887-1954) was a Russian poet, translator, and editor. No biographical data for the illustrator Tatiana Krshinovskaia is currently available . OCLC finds one North American institutional holding (Harvard) for this work. A fine copy Kartoshka
Octavo 19.5x15 cm., wrappers, 12pp Iakov Petkovich Metsin (1886-1943) was a Soviet childrens book author, publisher, editor, and bookseller. Maksin was largely responsible for the overall direction of childrens literature in the USSR under various bureaus until his arrest in 1938. A story about the chocolate potato. With artwork by Konstantin Vasilevich Kuznetsov (1873-1943), book artist, animator, and engraver. A near fine copy. O BEREZE, O MOROZE, ELKAKH DA IGOLKAKH. About Birch, About Frost, Fir Trees and Needles).
Oblong octavo 19.5x15 cm., wrappers, 22pp. Drawings by Nikolai Kupreianov (1894-1933). Finely rendered nature introduction to young readers. Aleksandr Viktorovich Kovalenskii (1897-1965) was a symbolist poet who authored children's books in the 1920s and 30s. OCLC locates three holdings in North America. A fine copy. Knizhka pro knizhki (A Book About Books)
Square octavo 22.5x19 cm., wrappers, (10) pp. A slovenly boy severely abuses the books in his household, leaving missing covers, torn pages, and other damage in such classics as The Brothers Grimm, Don Quixote, and Robinson Crusoe, among others. The books decide to escape, and flee en masse to the public library where they are greeted by a strong, stern, library catalog. They are repaired and put to bed to convalesce. When the boy discovers that all of his books are missing, he goes to the library to inquire about borrowing. The books recognize the boy, alert the library catalog, and - as the final illustration implies - fly off the shelves to chase or attack him. Author Samuil Marshak (1887-1964) was one of the great children's story tellers of the 20th century, authoring some of the most significant works for children in the Soviet era. Dmitry Mitrokhin (1883-1973) was a major graphic artist. He illustrated this 4th edition in a wonderful collaboration. OTCHET IZBIRATELIAM 1931-1934. Materialy o rabote Leninskogo raionnogo soveta RK I KD, Moskva. (Report to Voters for 1931-1934 on the Work of the Lenin District Council.)
Nikolai Sedelnikov and V. Ignatovich. Quarto 26.5x18 cm., wrappers, 112pp., with 26.5x17 cm. foldout. Cover and book design by The book addresses the work done to develop the Lenin District of Moscow, its communal economy, cultural objectives, etc. The Leninsky District was an administrative unit that existed from 1930 to 1991. Nikolai Sedelnikov (1904-1995) was a highly talented graphic designer and illustrator who excelled in photocollage. Includes Constructivist design work by Iofan, Kucherov, Vlasov, photo-portraits. Rare, with no worldcat holdings. A near fine copy. 2700 STAATSTHEATER W. MEYERHOLD. Auustandstournee 1930
Quarto 24.5x19 cm., stiff wrappers in silver jacket, 46pp. Dust wrapper design by Gustav Klutsis. The accompanying book to Meyerholds tour abroad in 1930 when he took the State Theater (Gos TIM) to Germany and France where he received acclaim. The book is replete with photos and summaries of Biomechanics, and various plays with cast featured, including Liubov Popovas work for The Magnanimous Cuckhold. A very fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Ornamente von Bruno Mauder
Large quarto 41x29.5 cm., (1) 15 of 16 plates of original lithographs with sheet backing, stamped Werke No. 51 (The publisher issued a number of folios at this time of decorative designs), in the original 1/2-cloth folio cover. Bruno Mauder (1877-1948) was a glass designer who was the Technical Director for glass industry and wood carving at Zwiesel from 1909. He subsequently worked in the area including the famed glassworks at Theresienthal. His work combines traditional German decorative patterns with Bauhaus abstraction and Expressionist imagery. He authored a number of books on glass work, but this folio is a stunning presentation of abstract decorative forms closely aligned with the Wiener Werkstaette and Secessionism. OCLC locates two institutional holdings in North America (Smithsonian, Wolfsonian). The present copy holds 15 of the 16 plates issued, plates very good+ to fine; the publisher's issued folio is in fine condition with all ties present. Konets Sankt-Peterburga (The End of St. Petersburg)
Octavo 22x15 cm., wrappers, 8pp.Sergei Pudovkin (1893-1953) is recognized as a pioneering great director of Soviet film. Here he writes a summary of the contents of this 1927 production with several stills from the film. Photocollage cover is unattributed. Uncommon, with only Yale and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts holding copies of this worldwide The Lithographs of Marc Chagall, I-VI (all published)
Monte-Carlo/NY: Braziller, 1960 (I) Monte-Carlo/Boston: Boston Book & Art Shop, 1963 (II) Monte-Carlo: Fernand Mourlot & Andre Sauret, 1969 (III) New York: Crown Publishers, 1974 (IV); 1984 (V); 1986 (VI) All quarto 33x25 cm., embossed cloth, 221, 209, 181, 180, 251, 225 pp., each with original dust wrapper, Vols IV and V in original slipcases. The set includes 24 original lithographs, with an additional four on the dust jackets of vols. I to IV. Volume III is the French language edition. Dust wrapper on Vol I chipped and worn at edges, else all volumes fine/fine. Vols. II-VI in original glassine covers. A magnificent publication, detailing the life and graphic work of Marc Chagall throughout his long, productive life. A well preserved set Der Ber
Quarto 19.8x16 cm., 10 (2) pp. Original illustrated wrappers, with title page and 8 illustrations by Lissitzky. Mild toning, rubber stamp to front wrapper and p. 5. 10, [2] p. Unknown edition size. After 1923, Lissitzky ceased illustrating Yiddish books and concentrated his great talents on Constructivism, photomontage and architectural design, making significant contributions in all of them. His illustrated Yiddish books remain unsurpassed to this day. (Tradition and Revolution, p. 66) Although this side of his work was little known until fairly recently, Lissitzky produced several extraordinary Yiddish children s books while living and working in Kiev soon after the Revolution. As a member of IZO Narkompros (People s Commissariat of Enlightenment), he helped set up the Kultur-Lige there. In 1919, he and the writer Ben Zion Raskin signed a contract with Yidisher Folks Farlag Kooperativ for 11 children s books in the Kinder Gorten series. Only two titles other than this one were ever published: The Miller, his Wife and the Millstones and The Hen that Wanted a Comb. These Yiddish children s books are extremely rare as many disappeared when Yiddish publications were officially banned by the Soviet State. OCLC locates 1 copy, at Getty. Nisbet, El Lissitzky 1919/3. Tradition and Revolution: The Jewish Renaissance in Russian Avant-Garde Art, cat. 94, illustrated pp. 186 187. Futur-anterieur, 123. Faint deaccession stamp on cover, else NF. UNU Noaptea.
M.H. Maxy, design, texts by A. Adamov, G.Bogza,V. Brauner, F.Corsa, Gh. Dinu S. Eliad, B.Fondoianu, V. Gheorghiu, A. Marius, Moldov, L. Moussinac, S. Pană, S. Roll, C. Sernet, I. Voronca, A. Zaremba. UNU was an outlier in the avant-garde, never proclaiming itself surrealist, although the French adopted it as such. Many of the contributors were aligned with the surrealist movement, which led to the expulsion from it because they didn't conform to the political stances determined by Breton. This number was distributed with a sheet of black paper as a symbol of the night. It features a work by Stephan Roll, under the pseudonym Jack the Ripper in a declaration written under the throes of night. OCLC locates two holdings in North America (Yale, Getty). UNU numbers were published in small quantities. They are quite rare.- $1,650
- $1,650
Unu no. 11
Folio 32,5 x 24 cm. Special number on Victor Brauner. Title printed on a light green semi-cardboard label, pasted on the first page. Victor Brauner designed this number, with texts by Geo Bogza, Filip Corsa, Benjamin Fondane, Alexandru Marius, Sașa Pana, Stephan Roll, Claude Sernet, Ilarie Voronca and Pierre Reverdy. After No. 10 UNU was published in Bucharest. OCLC locates two institutional holdings in North America (Yale, Getty). Released in very small quantities, copies of UNU are very rare.- $1,600
- $1,600
Balaieff’s Chauve-Souris Bat Theater of Moscow
Folio 32.5 x 24.5 cm, wrappers, 32pp. Cover design and numerous color illustrations by Serge Sudeikine (Sergei Sudeikin), with work also by Nicolas Remizoff (Nikolai Remizov). Undated. An extravagently conceived announcement for the first tour in New York for 17 months under the auspices of C.Ray Comstock & Morris Guest, it is a fine document of costume and theatre design by two of the preeminent Russian avant-garde artists. Fine but a small corner chip on front cover. Rare- $350
- $350
