Search Results: Authors starting with T from Bookvica

Moscow: Detizdat, 1938. 104 pp.: ill. 27x20 cm. In original illustrated cardboards; illustrated endpapers. Covers rubbed and bumped, small tear of the spine, but very good internally. On verso of front flyleaf an official inscription to schoolboy, dated 1938 and stamped. Very rare. Cover design was produced by book illustrator Nikolai Shishlovsky (1907-1984). Photographs were taken by Georgy Grachev. Little is known about him. Another book, entirely illustrated with his photographs, was 'Parade on the Red Square' (1937), banned and removed from libraries. Some pictures from this 'Artek' were included into the 1940 publication celebrating the camp's 15th anniversary. This photo book is dedicated to the most elite children's camp in the USSR. Founded in Crimea in 1925 as a small health resort for pioneers, Artek was gradually turned into the best of its kind. It became a cult destination for many generations - only excellent school children received vouchers to "an imaginary country of happiness".… Read More

Moscow: Vseros. proletkul't, 1923. 69, [2] pp. 22x16,3 cm. In the original illustrated publisher's constructivist wrappers. Loss of the pieces of the spine, Soviet bookshop stamp on the rear wrapper. Otherwise near fine. Scarce. First edition. 1 of 3,000 copies. Constructivist wrapper design by the Soviet avant-garde artist and book designer Mikhail Sokolov (1885-1947). Together with Tarabukin, Sokolov had developed an art school in Tver, where they were both involved in proto-constructivist book design. Sokolov combined teaching at the studios in Tver (1920-1922) with his graphic work. In his drawings, the artist referred to the tools of the avant-garde movement, cubicized forms and displacement. He was counted as a formalist by critics and was subject to Soviet repressions: in March 1938, Sokolov was sentenced to seven years in labour camps in Siberia. The first soviet book on the theory of painting by Nikolay Tarabukin (1889-1956). 'Experience of the Theory of Painting' was written in 1916 with… Read More

Moscow: Vserossiyskiy proletkult, 1925. 135, [2] pp. 22x15 cm. Original publisher's cover. Covers restored, bookstore stamp on back cover, otherwise very good. First edition. One of 3000 copies. Very rare. The program work by art critic Nikolay Tarabukin (1889-1956), one of the ideologists of Proletkult, who at the time taught at VKHUTEMAS. The art of the day is the art that is born in the day, that is dying with the dawn of the day - that's how Tarabukin defines the new art, however admitting its importance, he explains the purpose of creating this book as a guidance for the artists, designing billboards, wrappers of the books, posters, advertising, newspapers etc. He calls the poster 'the weapon of mass influence' and puts in above all other forms of 'minor art' in its importance for the masses. In the second chapter Tarabukin gives the principles of the Soviet advertising, in the third called 'old folk lubok and new agit-lubok', explains how to transform old tradition of the luboks printed for… Read More

Moscow, [1910s]. Paper, ink. Phototype made by K. Fisher. 22x14,3 cm. Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev (1843-1920), famous Russian botanist and physiologist, highly-regarded popularizer of science widely known for his enthusiastic public lectures, and moreover, a confirmed Darwinian, a point of view rarely espoused in czarist Russia. In 1910s Timiryazev was foremost Russian botanist of the day. His main scientific achievement was the development of experimental and theoretical problems of photosynthesis in plants.

1902. Manuscript. 89 pp. 22x17,5 cm. Inscription 'K. Gorbachev. Moscow. 1902' on the endpaper. Owner's contemporary binding. Brass corners on the front cover. Good condition. Handwritten notes to unrelated book at the back. The rare example of the handwritten summary of Tolstoy's adaptation of Gospels. It was made in early 1890s and were not allowed to be printed in Russia. The printed version was made in Geneva in 1892. That edition was banned from distribution in Russia. This copy was made by unknown follower of Tolstoy named Gorbachev in 1902. Most probably he was making a short summary from the Geneva copy of Gospels or another handwritten copy (p. 1-54). On pp. 54-89 'The overthrow of hell and its restoration' an article by Tolstoy reproduced in full. The brass corners on the binding and the way this book was produced (copying from another copy) makes an allusion to Slavonic manuscript tradition - indeed prior to XVI century that is how the actual Gospel could have been produced. It also… Read More

St. Petersburg, 1855. Noch. Vesnoiu 1855 goda v Sevastopole // Sovremennik. Tom LIII [i.e. The Night. Sevastopol in Spring of 1855 // The Contemporary. Vol. LIII]. Pp. 5-30. Rubka lesa // Sovremennik. Tom LIII [i.e. The Cutting of the Forest // The Contemporary. Vol. LIII]. Pp. 35-68. 24x15 cm. In contemporary half-leather with stamping, new paper on boards. Near fine, marking on the title page, restoration of margins of the few pages. First publication of the second of Sevastopol Sketches 'The Night. Sevastopol in Spring of 1855' (now known as 'Sevastopol in May') and 'The Cutting of the Forest'. 'The Night' was based on the event that Tolstoy was eyewitness to during Sevastopol Siege. After Nekrasov read it and wrote to Turgenev: «...this essay is so full of sober and deep truth so there is nothing even to think about printing it». When the story was typed for print Musin- Pushkin, the chairman of the St. Petersburg censorship committee decided to read its proofs. He was outraged by the… Read More

St. Petersburg, 1853. Pp. 93-120. 24x15 cm. Modern binding, two last leaves (Contents) with restoration, one page with small loss of the text (not Tolstoy). Otherwise very good. First publication of 'The Raid' and second publication of anything by Tolstoy. The story is based on Tolstoy's own experience as an artillery cadet stationed in the Caucuses. Tolstoy was working on the story from May to December of 1852, and original title and idea were changing through that time. But once he finished it he asked Nekrasov ('The Contemporary' editor) not to censor it or if not possible to return it. Tolstoy was right, The Raid was censored but Nekrasov still published it and it's signed 'L.T'.

1890. [311 leaves]. 22,5x17,5 cm. Manuscript with the extracts of the printed text glued to some pages. Contemporary half-leather binding. Owner's inscription on the title page 'Presented to my dear friend Taniechka by M. What is to be done? is the publicistic discourse that Tolstoy wrote in 1884-1886 as a result of moving to Moscow in 1882. He was amazed with the sights of town poverty and the social injustice. 'What is to be done' is a passionate analysis of the contemporary society and a proclamation of Tolstoy's moral principles. This text along with Ispoved' [i.e. Confessions] published at the same time was fundamental in the changing of Tolstoy from novelist to philosopher and moral leader of the nation. Only a brief version of the text appeared in print in Russia. But even that provoked big reaction among Russian readers. ''Tolstoy's appeal shook the Muscovites. Even people who were actually standing on the quiet side of life, even clerks and civil servants, people that were more or less… Read More

St. Petersburg: Eduard Prats, 1856. [4], 307 pp. 18,4x12 cm. Contemporary half-leather. Narrow strip of paper added to the top of the title page. Very good and clean copy. First edition of Tolstoy's second book. Rare. Tolstoy's second book encapsulates the first two parts of his well-known semi-autobiographical trilogy, Detstvo, Otrochestvo, Unost' [i.e. Childhood, Boyhood, Youth]. In the early 1850s Tolstoy's name was completely unknown in Russia's literary circles. The Kazan University dropout (Tolstoy found the study at the faculty of law and Oriental languages a little difficult; 1847) was leading a dissolute lifestyle involving excessive drinking and gambling. After running up heavy debts, Leo went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army as a Junker in 1851. It was there that Tolstoy wrote the first part of the trilogy (Detstvo), which he sent to one of the leading Russian magazines 'Sovremennik' [i.e. Contemporary] and signed it with the initials "L.N.T". The manuscript was… Read More

St. Petersburg: v tipografii Eduarda Pratsa, 1852. Pp. 7, [1], 134, 124, 32, 16, 38, 124, [1]. 22,5x15 cm. Contemporary quarter calf, cloth sides, a little surface wear, later endpapers, preserving the original printed wrappers ('Sovremennik 1852 No. IX, sentiabr'), guarded in the gutter. Without the final leaf from the gathering 9½ (pp. 135-6 from the second sequence, a translation of Byron's 'On this day I complete my thirty-sixth year' by Nikolai Gerbel); small spotted stain to pp. 21-22, with resultant loss of a few letters (sense recoverable), a similar brown stain to pp. 35-55 (again, the paper slightly thin, but no loss), occasional spotting, lower corner of p. 129 repaired (just touching a couple of letters). 'Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was twenty-three and convalescing in Tiflis after mercury treatment for ''the venereal sickness'' when he completed the first part of Childhood, which appeared in a Petersburg monthly in September 1852 [pp. 1-104 in the second sequence here], above the… Read More

[Riga]: Izglitibas ministrijas izdevums, 1930. 149, [3] pp.: ill., 2 maps. 22,5x16,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Very rare example of Belarusian textbooks printed in Latvia in the interwar period. Translated into Belarusian by Piatro Massal'ski. According to this particular book and common statistics, about 36 thousand Belarusians lived in Latvia in the 1930s (in contrast to 76,000 in 1921). After the Ulmanis' Coup (1934), Belarusian education gradually began to cease and wasn't restored after World War II. The book contains mass information about Latvia and the whole world, the text is supplemented with numerous photographs, drawings, charts. At the end of the book, two colored maps of Latvia (political and physical) are printed on separate leaves. All materials were divided into four sections. The first one included basic issues about cardinal points, scale, distance, landscape diversity, the Earth's interior and volcanism, water bodies in Latvia and around it, climate and… Read More

Moscow; Leningrad: Gos. izd-vo, 1930. 280, [4] pp., [4] ads., [4] pp. of plates, portraits. 16x23,9 cm. In original publisher's photomontage wrappers. Edges slightly worn. Otherwise near fine. First edition. Scarce. One of 5,000 copies. With the introductory letters by A. Agranovsky and V. Goffenshefer. The photomontage wrappers show peasants and the author of the book. The first-ever book about peasant criticism of Russian fiction written by the victim of Soviet repressions. The author of this edition, Adrian Mitrofanovich Toporov (1891-1984), was illegally repressed in 1937 and sent to the labor camps of Gulag (1937-1943). At the trial, this book was used as material evidence of Toporov's guilt. Later, the edition was included by Glavlit in the Annotated Lists of Politically Harmful Books to be Seized from Libraries and Booksellers for the following reasons: 'The book is littered with positive references to enemies of the people: Arosev, Pilnyak, Koltsov. On p. 264-266 positive reviews about… Read More

Moscow: Gosizdat, 1927. 259, [2] pp.: ill.+ 3 pp. of eds. 20x13,5 cm. In original illustrated cardboards. Binding rubbed and bumped, with small fragments of covering paper lost from spine, tears of spine, water stain on upper edge, some soiling occasionally, signature on t.p. painted over with a marker, otherwise very good and mostly clean internally. First edition with cover design created by Alexander Rodchenko. One of 4000 copies produced. The title is an alternative Cyrillic spelling of Zhōngguó, the Chinese name of the country. Traditional Chinese characters were used by Rodchenko in the cover design. It is a rare publication by futurist poet and journalist Sergey Tretiakov (1892-1939), known as one of the major LEF theoreticians. The book contains the author's observations about the daily life of ordinary people in China in the 1920s. Some of his notes were earlier published in the press, some texts were printed for the first time. Born in Latvia, Tretiakov moved to Moscow and enrolled in… Read More

Moscow: Gos. izdatel'stvo literatury po stroitel'stvu i arkhitekture, 1952. 393, [3] pp.: ill. 22,5x18 cm. In original full-cloth with gilt lettering on the front cover and spine, with blind design on the cover and laconic colored design on the spine. Rubbed, pencil underlinings occasionally, otherwise in very good condition. First and only edition. One of 10 000 copies. This is an interesting monograph by the Soviet art historian Mikhailo Tsapenko (1907-1977) who headed the Kiev Institute of Theory and History of Architecture in the 1950s. Overviewing the Soviet architecture from the angle of the latest Stalinism, he sharply criticizes the 1920-1930s styles. He stresses the foreignness of constructivism, critisizes the structure of the 1930s socialist cities, announces that all ideas by Mel'nikov, Ginzburg, Leonidov, Golosov, Kornfeld and other architects of OSA and ASNOVA societies were impractical and utopian. Denouncing them for lack of the national attributes, he praises the 1940s buildings… Read More

Moscow: Knigotsentr OGIZa, 1931. 76, [4] pp.: ill. 19,5x13,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. The wrappers and the title pages are restored. Overall a good copy. First and only edition. One of 4050 copies. The abridged list of architects and artists, associated with the book, include Kirill Zdanevich, Naum Segal', Lavinsky brothers and Grigoriy Zamskii. Extremely rare and richly illustrated manual on how to display books both inside and outside of Soviet bookstores. The book is divided into two relevant sections. The first one started from the outer look: the edition explained how to design window display and signboards to attract passers. The author drew attention to different types of internal display furniture: store counters, shelves and racks. Among them is a book display invented by A. Abramov that was commonly used for book exhibiting and displaying. Simple in construction, it was presented in a technical drawing and photographs together with assembly instructions. Other photographs… Read More

Tbilisi: Stamba samkhedro komisariatisa, 1924. 32 pp. 22x15 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Small fragments of spine lost, some soiling, ink note and marks, otherwise very good. First edition. One of 1000 copies. A Cubist portrait of the author by Irakli Gamrekeli on the front cover. This is one of the first collections of Georgian Dadaistic poems which established Grigol Tsetskhlade's role as the main representative of Dadaist ideas in Georgian literature. In 1924 the magazine "Theater and Life" (#2) dedicated an article to the avant-garde poet: "Tsetskhladze is a poetic innovator who is trying to discover new ways..." The interest of the book lies not only in its prioritization of Dadaism, but in serving as a literary granary to many succeeding writers on the Dadaist movement. New Georgian Book Design, 23. Not in the Worldcat.

Moscow: tip. V. Grachiova, 1862. 304 pp. In contemporary Italian half-leather. Gilt ornament on the spine. 24x17 cm. Pre-revolutionary stamps of the Russian library in Rome on the title page alongside the inventory numbers, otherwise a good tall fresh copy of an important and rare book. The first separate edition of Ivan Turgenev's (1818-1883) Otsy i deti [i.e. Fathers and Sons]. Fathers and Sons is considered to be the most famous novel by Turgenev. It first appeared in 1862 in Russkii vestnik [i.e. The Russian Herald]. After this publication, Turgenev prepared the novel for a separate edition by editing the text: he added a dedication to his mentor and liberal critic Belinsky (1811-1848). The dedication represented an important message to Turgenev's friends and enemies and pointed to the democratic nature of the novel. The author also removed some of Bazarov's unpleasant features (some call him the first Bolshevik in Russian literature). In his letter to Gertsen, Ivan wrote: ...while inventing… Read More