Gorodetsky, Sergei (1884-1967)
Angel Armeniy. Stikhotvoreniya [Title in Russian; 'The Angel of Armenia: Poems']
£250
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 13 July 2022 from 10:00 BST
Description
Tiflis [Tbilisi]: [no publisher], 1918. 8vo, 32 pp. (17.7 x 13.5cm), wire-stitched, head- and tailpieces from bas-reliefs in the Akdamar monastery (Lake Van, modern Turkey), inscribed by the author in Russian on dedication leaf recto 'Erik Lvovich Bekoder[?] s druzhecki privetlivy, Sergey Gorodetsky, [1]920 IV Baku' ('To Erik Lvovich Bekoder[?], with friendliest greetings, Sergei Gorodetsky, 1920 IV Baku'), disbound, browned, together with 11 others, Russian literature, including Boris Pasternak, Doktor Zhivago, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1957 [i.e. 1958] (first trade edition in Russian, original light green boards, later-issue dust jacket), Leon Trotzky, The Bolsheviki and World Peace, New York: Boni and Liveright, 1918 (original blue-green cloth, portrait frontispiece) (12)
Footnote
Note: Sergei Gorodetsky co-founded the Acmeist movement in Russian poetry with Nikolay Gumilev; outside poetry his works include the scenario for Prokofiev's ballet Ala i Lolli (later reworked for orchestra as the Scythian Suite), and a 1933 Sovietised rewrite of the libretto for Glinka's A Life for the Tsar. Some sources cite the first edition of Angel Armeniy as appearing in 1917, others in 1918; we have been unable to trace another copy.