Rare books from Bookvica

Berlin; Paris: Russkoe iskusstvo, 1921-1926. #1-14. Ca. 32x25 cm. Every issue in illustrated wrappers. Generally very good, some mild soiling, with tiny tears and losses of the spine (#1,2,12,14), foxing and piece of tape on the spine (#13). A complete set. Extremely rare in wrappers. Lavishly illustrated throughout with black and white and color plates with captions. Print run was approximately 300 copies. Zhar-ptitsa is 'perhaps the most famous of post-revolutionary art journals, whose contributors threw new light on the development of Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century' (Fekula). By the early 1920s, a large Russian emigre colony had formed in Germany, and the hyperinflation that swept over the country turned it into a paradise for publishers who found the conditions under which the output of books was much cheaper than anywhere else in Western Europe. All this caused a 'Russian book boom' on the banks of the Rhine: about 50 Russian publishers worked in Berlin at that time.… Read More

Three letters and signed book by Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), the letters and inscription are unpublished. 1. Pasternak, Boris. Okhrannaia gramota [i.e. The Protection]. Leningrad, 1931. 128 pp. 18x12,5 cm. In original cardboards. First edition of Pasternak's autobiographical book, dedicated to his pre-revolutionary life. Inscribed by Pasternak on the half-title: "To Ilamaz Mitsishvili for the happiness and memory of those magnificent hours, that I spent at his mother's house. B. Pasternak. 27 of February. 1959". Covers are slightly rubbed. 2. Three letters with three envelopes, the addresses on them all are in poet's hand. 1 p., 1,5 pp., 2 pp. This little archive tells the story of Pasternak's trip to Georgia half a year after he received Nobel Prize and a year before he passed away. All three letters addressed to Marina Nikolaevna Mitsishvili, the daughter of one of the leaders of Georgian symbolism, poet Niko Mitsishvili (1896-1937). Mitsishvili was one of the founders of 'Blue Horns', the… Read More

A collection of letters that gives a fortunate insight into the life of 16-year-old Alexei Kruchyonykh. Very little is known about Kruchyonykh's life prior to his graduation from Odessa Art School in 1906. Probably the first fact of the poet's biography that is being mentioned is the acquaintance with Burliuk brothers in Odessa in 1905. The first poem by Kruchyonykh was published in 1910. That's why these six letters from 1902 are important for understanding the making of Kruchyonykh that we know. Alexei was born in Kherson area of Ukraine, in Olevka village, in the family of a peasant. In 1892 the family moved to Kherson, the port town on Dnieper river and the Black Sea. That's where he has attended the primary school and in 1902 has passed the exam to Odessa Art School, and moved there. He was accepted already to the second year and eventually has graduated in 1906 as an art teacher. The school year has started in August, and the first letter is dated 8th of October, 1902 and the last one is… Read More

The archive consisting of one signed photo by Shostakovich, 6 letters (with the envelopes in maestro's handwriting), 1 congratulatory telegram with the photo pasted on it and one family photo. All of the letters are addressed to Kazan to Isaia Sherman. Isai Sherman (1908-1972) the Ukrainian born conductor, who has been working in Kazan and Leningrad during his career. He has been involved in two productions of Shostakovich over the years, including 'Sorochinskaya fair' in 1931 and 'Katerina Izmailova' in 1965. The letters are concerning the latter production. Since the 1930s it was banned for theaters to perform Shostakovich's work, but in 1960s the unofficial ban was lifted and in 1962 the operas started to appear, first in Moscow. The earliest of the letters are from May, 1963, to Sherman who was staying at Petrozavodsk at the time, in which Shostakovich simply expresses the gratitude to Sherman for the congratulations. Four letters are dated 1964-68 sent to Kazan, where Sherman became the head of… Read More

St. Petersburg: Eduard Prats, 1856. [4], 307 pp. 18,4x12 cm. Contemporary half-leather. Narrow strip of paper added to the top of the title page. Very good and clean copy. First edition of Tolstoy's second book. Rare. Tolstoy's second book encapsulates the first two parts of his well-known semi-autobiographical trilogy, Detstvo, Otrochestvo, Unost' [i.e. Childhood, Boyhood, Youth]. In the early 1850s Tolstoy's name was completely unknown in Russia's literary circles. The Kazan University dropout (Tolstoy found the study at the faculty of law and Oriental languages a little difficult; 1847) was leading a dissolute lifestyle involving excessive drinking and gambling. After running up heavy debts, Leo went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army as a Junker in 1851. It was there that Tolstoy wrote the first part of the trilogy (Detstvo), which he sent to one of the leading Russian magazines 'Sovremennik' [i.e. Contemporary] and signed it with the initials "L.N.T". The manuscript was… Read More

St. Petersburg: Fyodor Stellovsky, 1865-1870. Vol.1-4. 274,[1]; 256,[1]; 374,[2]; 225 pp. 26x19 cm. Two half-leather period bindings. New endpapers. Pre-revolutionary stamps of St. Petersburg bookseller on title pages. The owner's inscription in pencil (Nikitin) on the title page of vol.3. Otherwise very good. Complete with advertisement of the publisher in volumes 1 and 3. Extremely rare as a set. The first complete edition of Dostoevsky's work that consisted of everything he has written to the day. The edition featured the novel 'The Gambler' written specifically for this edition. The edition featured following novels, novellas and short stories: - The Landlady (first edition in a book form) - Mr. Prokharchin (first edition in a book form) - A Weak Heart (first edition in a book form) - The House of the Dead - Poor Folk - White Nights (first edition in a book form) - An Honest Thief (first edition in a book form) - Humiliated and Insulted (first edition in a book form) - Crocodile (first… Read More

Moscow: tip. V. Grachiova, 1862. 304 pp. In contemporary Italian half-leather. Gilt ornament on the spine. 24x17 cm. Pre-revolutionary stamps of the Russian library in Rome on the title page alongside the inventory numbers, otherwise a good tall fresh copy of an important and rare book. The first separate edition of Ivan Turgenev's (1818-1883) Otsy i deti [i.e. Fathers and Sons]. Fathers and Sons is considered to be the most famous novel by Turgenev. It first appeared in 1862 in Russkii vestnik [i.e. The Russian Herald]. After this publication, Turgenev prepared the novel for a separate edition by editing the text: he added a dedication to his mentor and liberal critic Belinsky (1811-1848). The dedication represented an important message to Turgenev's friends and enemies and pointed to the democratic nature of the novel. The author also removed some of Bazarov's unpleasant features (some call him the first Bolshevik in Russian literature). In his letter to Gertsen, Ivan wrote: ...while inventing… Read More

Moscow: Selkolkhozgiz, 1931. 142 pp. 22,2x14,7 cm. Original illustrated wrappers. Fine condition. The architecture of the book by "Brigade #1 For Mass Book Production". No copies in Worldcat. The polygraphic masterpiece by the unsung hero of Soviet book constructivism, Elbrus Gutnov (1906-1981), and his "Brigade #1 For Mass Book Production". The self-taught Ossetia artist, he was always in the shadow of Solomon Telingator, but he was indeed one of the most consistent practitioners of the ideas of polygraphic constructivism established by Alexei Gan and El Lissitskiy. As a young man Vladikavkaz, where he was painting for the local Red Army unit, Gutnov was noticed by Sergo Ordzhenikidze. Under Sergo's protection, and with the approval of Stalin and Lunacharsky, Gutnov traveled to Germany to study. He enrolled in the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts (Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst) in Berlin, where he studied in the polygraphic department. According to his… Read More

#1, 2, 3, 4 for 1923, #1, 2 for 1924, #3 for 1925. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1923-1925. # 1 (1923): 252, [1] pp.: ill. + 3 pp. of ads. 24x16 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Fragments of spine lost, minor tears of outer edge of p. 215-216, some soiling, small signature on t.p. Otherwise good. # 2 (1923): 177, [1] pp.: ill. + 2 pp. of ads. 24x16 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Tears of spine and covers, otherwise very good. #3 (1923): 40, [1], 40a, 41-186, [1] pp.: ill.+5 pp. of ads. 23x15 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Uncut, minor pale water stains on front cover, small tears of spine with small fragments lost. Otherwise very good. #4 (1923, t.p. dated 1924): 222, [1] pp.: ill.+ 1 p. of ad. 23x15 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Separated to sections. Fragments of spine lost. Some foxing, pale water stain on front cover and following three leaves. Good. #1 (1924): 160 pp:. ill. 23x15 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Back cover detached, fragments of spine… Read More

Kyiv: Kooperativn farlag "Kultur-lige", 1922. XXIII pp.: ill., 5 ills. 34,5x25,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Wrapper is restored from the edges without loss of the image or the text. p. I-XIV have a trace of rust going through them, at the outer margins - also restored. Few stains are also on the last page of the book. Otherwise good. Overall a well-restored and preserved copy of this extremely fragile large-format edition. First and only edition. One of 4500 copies. Extremely rare as a complete copy with 5 illustrations on separate leaves.;; It is 2 more than illustrations in a copy of the Yale University. Elegies for Jewish communities devastated during pogroms that were caused by the Russian Civil War. They were written by Yiddish poet David Hofstein and were published at Kultur Lige which gained the leading position in Jewish social and cultural life. The association enlisted practically all the Yiddish cultural, political, scholarly figures of any fame that lived in Ukraine and… Read More

Berlin: Skify, 1922. [12 leaves including the wrappers]. 262x200 mm. The wrapper is restored: the front wrapper's margins are supplied, the right, left and top sides of the outer square are gone, but the bottom side remains along with El's monogram. No staples. The rear wrapper preserved with extra blank leaf added. The rest of the pages are good and clean, apart from being trimmed like the rest of the copy, with no restoration impact. Often copies survived don't have the front wrapper at all, which led to a number of online publications show the first page of the book as 'Vsem, vsem rebyatkam' [i.e. To all, to all children], which is a leaf right after the front wrapper. The book, that was constructed in Vitebsk in 1920 during Lissitzy's Unovis days, came to this world two years later in Berlin to transform the concept of book design for years to come. The mounting research dedicated to this publication and its revolutionary constructor makes it impossible to add much. Maybe this book could only… Read More

Tbilisi, 1924. 48 leaves with printed typographic designs and photographic illustrations. 28,6x20,5 cm. The wrappers are restored at extremities, as well as the spine. The minor tears at the edges of the title page, also restored. The block has small holes close to the inner margin, possibly the magazine used to be in a binding. A corner of l.48 is missing - supplied, not affecting the text. Overall a well-preserved copy of this legendary magazine. First edition. The only issue of the Georgian avant-garde group's journal under this name.
Extremely important example of alternative avant-garde experiment. Tiflis was well-known as a place where daring new ideas in book design and art were developed in the 1910s-1920s. Collaborations between the Zdanevich brothers, Kruchionykh (1886-1968), Sudeikin (1882-1946), Gudiashvili (1896-1980) and others led to the creation of unique avant-garde pieces like "Fantasticheskiy kabachiok" (The Fantastic Tavern), "1918", and Iliazd's pentalogy, "AslaabliCHia… Read More

Moscow: GIZ, 1ya Obraztsovaya tipogrfiya, 1928. [12] pp., including wrappers. 23,6x19,8 cm. In publishers' wrappers. Spine is slightly restored, marginal pale foxing on the last 2 pages, otherwise in very good, original condition. Lithographed throughout. First edition. One of the best-known early Soviet children's books. On April 12, 1927, Mayakovsky formalized an agreement with the children's literature department of the State Publishing House. On the same day, he submitted the manuscripts of two children's books, titled "Read it and ride to Paris and China" and " Fire Horse." While in Prague that April in an interview, Mayakovsky expressed his newfound interest in children's literature, stating, "My newest hobby is children's literature. It is necessary to familiarize children with new concepts, with a new approach to things. The result of this passion is evident in two books: 'On Teamwork' and 'A Journey Around the Earth' (referring to 'Fire Horse ' and 'Read and Ride to Paris and China'). He… Read More

Berlin, [1922]. [28] pp., with 26 photographs mounted on leaves. 32x23 cm. The album opens with the photos of Korolev, signed. Each photo is inscribed and dated by Korolev, indicating the year the work was submitted, the name and the museum where the work was held at the time. In a hand-made paper folder. Spine is slightly restored and strengthened. In the modern protective case. Provenance: collection of the artist Nikolay Istselennov, Paris. Important artifact from one of the iconic exhibitions of Russian avant-garde. Boris Korolev (1884-1963) was one of the most well-known sculptors of Russian modernism of the 1910-1920s. He studied at the Studio of painting and drawing by I.I. Mashkov graduated in 1916. As a young sculptor Korolev was responsible for conducting the change in Russian sculpture from pre-revolutionary style to Soviet. In December 1917 he participated in demolition of Skobelev's statue in Moscow, and next year according to Lenin's plan of monumental propaganda (inspired by… Read More

Radioliubitel' [i.e. Radio Enthusiast] # 1-7 for 1924, #8 (January 15, 1925); #1-6, 7/8, 9, 10, 11/12, 13, 14, 15/16, 17/18, 19/20, 21/22, 23/24 for 1925; #1, 2, 3/4, 5/6, 7, 8, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, 15/16, 17/18, 19/20, 21/22, 23/24 for 1926; #1-10, 11/12 for 1927; #1, 2, 3/4, 5-11 for 1928; #1-12 for 1929; #1-6, 7/8, 9, 10, 11/12 for 1930; Overall 81 issues. Moscow: Izd. MGSPS "Trud i kniga", 1924-1930. 30,3x23 cm. Six full-cloth 20th-century bindings with stickers on spines; original illustrated wrappers preserved. Overall very good condition of the issues, clean internally. Front wrapper of #1 (1926, 1927), p. 1 of #1 (1927) repaired, front wrapper of #1 (1927) almost detached, back covers of many issues lost coupon fragments. Pale water stains (1924-1927), pencil notes occasionally, minor spots around rusty staples, some stains in #7 (1924), some sections detached from each other. Advertising leaf detached from #10 (1927), no advertising leaf of #12 (1927). Back cover of #12 (1929) soiled. Full… Read More