MANDELSHTAM, Osip (1891-1938). Almanach ‘Dom Iskusstv Num. I’ (House of Arts). St. Petersburg: House of Arts, 1921. Octavo, 85pp. First number of the Almanac published by the famous House of Arts -- the organization that supported many Russian writers and artists in the difficult period after the Revolution. Contributors include Mandelshtam, N.Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, A. Blok, A. Remizov, E. Zamyatin and others. The cover is illustrated by M. Dobujzhinsky and the volume includes other illustrations by him, S. Chekhonin, B. Kustodiev and others. Among the texts published here for the first time is Zamyatin’s famous and important article, "I am Afraid." The present is a particularly important copy, bearing a one-and-a-half page poetic manuscript by Osip Mandelshtam, of the poem, "When Psyche, Who is Life," later published in Tristia (1922), and later as number 209 of his collected verse. Mandelshtam submitted three poems for publication here, all dedicated to Olga Arbenian, the muse of the Acmeists. As it eventuated that only two of the poems were actually published, Mandelshtam wrote out the text of the third for a friend on this copy of the almanach. It is well known that Mandelshtam had an aversion to writing down his poems. His wife Nadezhda, whose heroic memory is responsible for the preservation of many of his works, discusses this peculiarity in her extraordinary volumes of autobiography, Hope Against Hope and Hope Abandoned. In toto, there are no more than about two dozen extant poems in the hand of Mandelshtam. This is the only known manuscript of the present poem, written in pencil over the last two pages of the almanach, signed by Mandelshtam at the close. Rear wrapper detached, else a very good copy of of this rare and fragile title.

With a holograph poem

• Category: Extraordinary Books, Manuscripts & Art
• Keywords: Manuscripts · poetry · Russian
• Language: Deutsch
• Inventory number: 6423LB

Our Price: USD 35,000.00