One of only a thousand copies
BLOK, Alexander [Aleksandr]. Ob Aleksandre Bloke. Petrograd/Petersburg: Kartonnyi domik. 1921.
Small 8vo. Original printed card wrappers; pp. 336, [4, contents and publisher's advertisements], printed on strong paper; extremities a little worn, a few gatherings toned due to paper stock, otherwise a very good copy of a great rarity.
Sole edition, one of only 1000 copies printed of this volume commemorating the recently deceased poet Alexander Blok.
The contributions are by B. Engelgardt, B. Eikhenbaum, V. Zhirmunskii, IU. Verkhovskii, A. Slonimskii, N. Antsiferov and V. Piast. By 1921 Blok, who had transcended symbolism with his revolutionary poem The Twelve in 1918, had become desillusioned with the way politics was going, and his health was seriously in decline. Doctors suggested a sojourn abroad, and Gorky pleaded for visa, writing to Lunacharsky 'Blok is Russia's finest poet. If you forbid him to go abroad, and he dies, you and your comrades will be guilty of his death'. A visa was eventually issued and sent, but arrived just after the poet's death.
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