Unfinished Dissertation, or Discussions with Oneself

Zurich: Scalo Verlag, 1998. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. First edition. Printed and presumed bound in Germany. 11.5 x 9.5 inches. Beige paper hardboards. Unbumped spine head and tail, and sharp corners, although with a small gash at the upper spine. Text block firmly bound in. 216 numbered pages, with numerous B&W photo-plates, including a rather bizarre collection of portraits as well as images of urban settings. Most photo images are presented on sepia-tone backgrounds. Plus an essay by Margarita Tupitsyn, Photography as a Remedy for Stammering. A very clean book, inside and out. Either unread or quite gently read. In a lovely B&W and beige dust jacket; the DJ has a deftly repaired tear near the top of the spine. A Near Fine copy in a Near Fine DJ. 3 lb. 2 oz. weight. According to RRB Photobooks, "between 1984 and 1985, Boris Mikhailov worked on Unfinished Dissertation. He was gluing his pictures of everyday life in Kharkov, on the back of his uncle's lecture notes. Later he added handwritten autobiographical comments, philosophical fragments and notes on photography in the empty spaces." From the library of Marshall Winokur [1942-2022]. He was a recognized collector of books and postcards on Russia and the Soviet Union. His research on Russian culture and the fate of Russian Orthodox churches, convents and monasteries under the Soviet regime led to numerous publications, fellowships, and talks, and found expression in his collection of over 25,000 postcards depicting life in the Russian Empire, a collection now available at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (the Winokur-Munblit collection of the Russian Empire postcards).