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

Gladkov, Fedor

Tsement. Roman (Cement)

Riga, Gramatu Draugs, 1929. First edition published in Latvia; 8 x 5 1/2; pp. 5-246, [2]; gray wraps, printed in dark-blue and decorated with a small vignette; closed cuts with small loss of paper to tips of spine; light creases to corners of wraps and a small spot to lower margin; in good to very good condition. Fedor Gladkov (1883 - 1958) was a socialist-realist writer, secretary of the journal "Novy Mir," and Director of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. His first major novel and his best-known work - originally published in 1925 - the "Cement" would arguably become the first in socrealist literature, and its literary standard of the 1930s, to describe the hardships of the post-Revolutionary reconstruction of the Soviet Union. Good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003181

Catalogue: Literature

Keywords: Socrealist

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