Avgust Chetyrnadtsatogo (Uzel 1. 10-21 Avgusta St. St.)

Paris: YMCA-Press, 1971. Hardcover. Near Fine. First Russian edition; 5 1/2" x 7 3/4"; pp. [8], 9-573 + 2 maps; original plain green cloth-over-boards; silvery title to spine; very minor wear (spine very slightly cocked forward, mostly very clean); near fine. 'August 1914' was the first book in the author's epic cycle 'The Red Wheel.' Solzhenitsyn was awarded The Nobel Price for Literature in 1970 and due to his controversial works - expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974. He began gathering materials for his current novel as early as the 1930s. In the aftermath of WWII, he was arrested for spreading derogatory comments about the conduct of the war and sentenced to a term in a labor camp. He eventually finished the manuscript in late 1970. The plot was centered on the defeat of Imperial Russia at the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia. Provenance: From the library of Simon Karlinsky - professor emeritus of Slavic languages and literature at UC Berkeley from 1964 to 1991 and one of the leading experts on homosexuality in pre-Soviet culture (his personal embossed stamp to half-title and title pages). This edition held mostly by institutions; extremely scarce in the trade - it has not come up for auction since 1975.