(Bondarev, Timofei); [Made Known, Augmented, and Edited by] Tolstoi, Count Lyof

Labor: The Divine Command. The Suppressed Book of the Peasant Bondareff

Toronto, William Bryce, Publisher, 1890. First Edition. First English edition; 7 x 4 3/4; pp. [2], 5-160, [8]; yellow, pictorial wraps; spotting to front wrap and a thin, discolored band to bottom margin of first few leaves; a bit of wear to edges and a small cut to fore-edge of front wrap; very faint gift inscription to top margin of front wrap; in about very good condition. Number 236 in publisher William Bryce's "Home Series," the book was the first English edition of Russian peasant philosopher Timofei Bondarev's "The Triumph of the Farmer or Industry and Parasitism," which was published only because of Tolstoy's involvement and the latter's going to great lengths to have the work released. His first two attempts were censored, but in 1888 the Russkoe Delo journal serialized it with an afterword by Tolstoy. In 1890, thanks to Tolstoy, it was translated and published in book form in French and right after - in English (the current edition) - by American novelist Mary Cruger (1834 - 1908). The text would be reverse-translated into Russian and published in condensed form by Posrednik in 1906. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003378

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Classics

Dikkens, Charlz (Dickens, Charles)

Prikliucheniia Olivera Tvista

Moskva (Moscow), Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1976. Uniform edition. Uniform edition; 10 1/2 x 6 3/4; pp. [4], 5-287, [1]; embossed, beige cloth over boards; title in gilt and green; a few minor spots to boards; each page ruled with an intricate, green border; very good condition. A large and handsome translation of Dickens' beloved "Oliver Twist. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002441

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Classics

Franko, Ivan

Chuma (Plague)

Kharkiv, Kooperatyvne 'RUKH" Bydavnytstvo, 1927. First edition in book form, 1 of 5000 copies; 6 3/4 x 4 1/2; pp. 3-55, [5]; beige, pictorial wraps, illustrated in green and gray; small, closed cuts to tips of spine; uniform age-toning to text block; overall in very good condition. Ivan Franko (1856 - 1916) was a Ukrainian author, journalist, poet, political activist, translator, philosopher, and widely-acclaimed as the first author of detective works and of modern poetry in Ukrainian language. He was also a co-founder of the National Democratic Party in 1899, which would play a leading role in establishing the Western Ukrainian National Republic in 1918. He would be nominated as a candidate for the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature, but he would pass away, before the nomination would materialize. His current story, "Plague", was first published in Polish in 1887, in the journal "Przegl d spo eczny". It would be translated and published in Russian and Ukrainian in the "Kiev Antiquity" and "Dawn" magazines in 1889. The publisher, Rukh, was a co-operative publishing house, founded in 1917, which predominantly published Ukrainian pre-Revolutionary authors in series, including the current book, which was a stand-alone part 22 of the complete works of Franko (in 30 parts), in their so called "Frankivska Library" series. Rukh would be shut down and liquidated in 1933. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002951

Catalogue: Literature & Classics

Keywords: Ukraine, Nobel Prize

Gete, I. V. fon (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von)

Favst. Trahediia. Persha Chastyna (Faust. A Tragedy. Part One)

Kyiv-Viden, Vernihora, 1919. First Ukrainian edition, 1 of 10 000 copies; 9 x 6 1/4; pp. [5], 6-136; rebound in black leatherette over boards and 3/4 brown cloth; gilt title to front board; portrait frontis and 12 black and white illustrations; two small bumps to top and bottom edges of front board; text block very slightly wobbly; a tiny nick to upper corner of first few leaves; small, penciled-in gift inscription to margin of first plate; very good condition. A beautiful, first Ukrainian edition of the first part of Goethe's Faust, it was translated by poet, educator, publicist, and member of the organization of revolutionary writers Zakhidnia Ukraina Dmytro Zahul (1890 - 1944). Accused of nationalism, Zahul was arrested in 1933 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor at a Kolyma camp. He died there in the summer of 1944. The illustrator of the book, Alexander von Liezen-Mayer, nee Sandor Liezen-Mayer (1839 - 1898) was a Hungarian-German artist and illustrator, best known for his cycle of illustrations for Faust, which brought his initial fame, as well as drawings for works of Shakespeare, Schiller, etc. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002781

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Classics, German

Gogol, N. V.

Starosvetskie Pomeshchiki (the Old World Land Owners)

Moskva / Leningrad, Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo khudozhestvennoi literatury, 1932. Third edition; 6 3/4 x 4 1/2; pp. 3-37, [1]; light-brown wraps, printed and ruled in red and green; small, closed cut to fore-edge of front wrap; paper around staples slightly pulling; light, uniform age-toning; in about very good condition. First written by Nikolai Gogol in 1835, the short story would be the first in the author's Mirgorod collection and would tell a "bittersweet and ironic reworking of the Baucis and Philemon legend from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003603

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Classics, Russia

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

The Intelligence Office (Daily Herald, Vol. XII, Nos. 242 and 243)

Newburyport, MA, J. B. Morss & W. H. Brewster, 1844. Two complete issues of the Daily Herald, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, April 3rd and 4th, 1844; 18 1/2 x 12 1/4; pp. [4] each; Hawthorne's short story on front page in both issues; occasional, small spots of foxing; no. 242 with a discreet, hand-stitch repair of a period tear through the title of the story; a few cuts and small chips to edges; overall in about very good condition. An unrecorded, very-early, possibly second printing of Hawthorne's "The Intelligence Office" (first published a month earlier, in March of 1844, in United States Magazine and Democratic Review, XIV), it would eventually become part of the author's collection of 23 short stories "Mosses from an Old Manse," published in 1846 and named in honor of the manse Hawthorne lived in in Concord, Massachusetts. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002986

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Americana, Classics

Lamb, Charles Esq.

Elia

New York, Geo. Dearborn, Publisher, 1835 [i.e. 1836]. Early American edition (cover imprint with the date 1836 - from a record at the AAS); 8 1/2 x 5 1/4; pp. [1], 2-126; rebound in period, leaf-patterned paper; text in two columns; a small, personal stamp to title page of John C. Graves, Attorney of the prominent New York Graves Family of lawyers; title page with a few small nicks to fore-edge; in very good condition. An early and scarce American edition of Charles Lamb's popular collection of essays, in a beautiful, unusual format. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003453

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Classics

Malory, Sir Arthur; Beardsley, Aubrey

The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures, the Achieving of the San Greal and in the End le Morte Darthur with the Dolourous Death and Departing out of This World of Them All

New York, E. P. Dutton, 1909. Second Beardsley edition, first one-volume edition, limited to 1500 copies; 10 1/4 x 8; pp. [9], vj-liv, [1], 2-624; green cloth over boards; gilt decorations and title to front board and spine; illustrated with 20 full-page plates and numerous in-line drawings by Aubrey Beardsley; a bit of rubbing to tips of spine and corners and a tiny, closed cut to cloth to upper margin of spine; table of contents with a few small chips to fore-edge; booklate and gift inscription to front board verso and ffep; scattered spots of foxing to first and last few leaves; in very good condition. Containing 10 additional chapter headings not found in the first edition of 1893 - 1894, the book would be considered famed illustrator, author, and leading contributor to the development of the Art Nouveau Aubrey Beardsley's (1872 - 1898) first and much-celebrated major work. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003371

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Classics

Morrow, William Chambers

The Bloodhounds. A Sombre Incident of the CIVIL War (the Argonaut, Vol. V, No. 24, December 13, 1879)

San Francisco, The Argonaut, 1879. First appearance of one of the earliest published short stories of William Morrow; pp. [2] - front and second pages; a spot to right margin; folded through middle, resulting in several short cuts to right edge, with minor repairs to verso; in good or better condition. Journal - 16 1/2 x 11 1/2; pp. [16] altogether; moisture stain to bottom edge; a few closed splits to spine; in good condition. William Chambers Morrow (1854 - 1923) was a renowned author of suspense and horror short stories, who moved from Alabama to California in 1879 and promptly began selling his tales to The Argonaut, the latter having been founded just two years earlier, but already establishing itself as an influential, weekly, cultural and political journal. It was said that author Ambrose Bierce, already employed at The Argonaut, would be greatly influenced by Morrow's work, elements of which would later appear in many of Bierce's writings. "The Bloodhounds" would be the first story, where Morrow would employ the truly-grim, shocking, horror endings, which would become his trademark in his subsequent works. This particular one revolved around a Confederate soldier, a deserter, heading home to help feed his family. A unit, dispatched with twelve bloodhounds to chase him down, located him in a swamp and in the following two hours - repeatedly attacked and injured by the animals, he managed to kill eleven of the dogs, one at a time, with his bare hands and resourcefulness. Having stopped to rest, the soldier fainted, just to have the oldest, most experienced bloodhound find him and rip his throat out. Good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002957

Catalogue: Literature & Classics

Keywords: CIVIL War, Horror

Pushkin, Aleksandr

Ruslan I Lyudmila. Poema (Ruslan and Ludmila. A Poem)

Moskva (Moscow), Izdatelstvo "Detskaia literatura, 1964. Uniform edition; 11 1/2 x 9; pp. [6], 7-113, [3]; white cloth over boards, decorated in red and gilt, and pictorial dust jacket; stunning full-page and in-line Palekh illustrations by noted artists Parilov and Dudorov; book with very minor wear to edges - in near fine condition; DJ with two small, closed cuts to bottom and a tiny chip to head. Tipped-in, printed card with a manuscript note - "With compliments" - of Nikolai Tarassov, Deputy Representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the United States. Originally created in 1820, Pushkin’s poem was written as an epic fairy tale in six cantos and told the story of Princess Ludmila, her abduction by an evil wizard, and knight Ruslan’s quest to rescue her. The Palekh style of painting, known for its delicate, intricate lines and abundance of gilt, was based on ancient icon painting and first appeared in the village of Palekh, in the form of decorations for miniature, black, lacquered boxes. Near fine .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003924

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Illustrations, Classics, Children

Tolstoy, Leo

Tales of Sevastopol [an Asociation Copy]

Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950. First edition thus; 10 1/2 x 8; pp. [10], 9-153, [3]; gray leatherette over boards, embossed and decorated in gilt, beige, and black; pictorial dust jacket; illustrated with plates, including a laid-on frontis, and from woodcuts at the beginning of each chapter; small bumps and to corners and a bit of wear to tips of spine; age-toning mostly to extreme margins of boards; in very good condition. DJ with chips and some loss to edges; in fair condition. Ffep with a tiny, embossed coat of arms, personal stamp, and inscription by Serge Cheremeteff, nee Sergei Vladimirovich Sheremetev: "To Anna and Robert / from a man who knew Tolstoy / Sergei C. / 1964." A beautifully-illustrated compilation and an interesting association copy, the book featured Tolstoy's three prose works, based on his experiences during the Siege of Sebastopol in 1854 and 1855 - "Sevastopol in December," "Sevastopol in May," and "Sevastopol in August 1855" - originally published in 1855 and 1866. The previous owner of the book, Colonel Sergei Vladimirovich Sheremetev-Stroganov (1880 - 1968), was the grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova and great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. A decorated veteran of the Russo-Japanese War and WWI, he also served as Minister of Internal Affairs, Military Attache in Constantinople, Governor-General in Kiev, and Lieutenant-Governor of the Volyn region in Ukraine. After the revolution, he emigrated to Paris, then to the US, and finally to Italy. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003087

Catalogue: Classics

Keywords: Russia, Romanovs

Turgenev, I. S.

Pervaia Liubov (First Love)

Berlin - Peterburg (Berlin - St. Petersburg), Izd-Stvo Z. I. Grzhebina, 1923. First Thus. First edition thus; 5 3/4 x 4; pp. [5], 8-130; textured beige wraps; title and vignette in gilt; small nicks to corners and tips of spine and a bit of wear to edges; text block pulling slightly at hinges; numerous illustrations by Vladimir Konashevich, including frontis, full-page, and in-line; very good condition. A beautiful and uncommon edition of Ivan Turgenev's (1818 - 1883) novella, it was published in Germany for the Russian emigre community and illustrated by master graphic artist and member of Mir Isskustva Vladimir Konashevich (1888 - 1963). The work, originally published in 1860 in "Biblioteka dlia chteniia" journal, told the love story between a 21-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy. In Turgenev's own words, it was the most autobiographical of all his writings and it drew polar-opposite reviews, gathering a great number of supporters and at the same time being condemned for its inapropriate subject matter. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002395

Catalogue: Russian Classics

Keywords: Love, Classics