Bystrʹ : monologicheskaia drama (Swifthood : A Monological Drama) [Russian Futurism]

Limited edition of 500 copies (current copy is no. 138).

Very goodcondition; original green wrappers show some foxing and color fading to the edges, repaired spine and corners of front wrapper, couple of minor ink stains on the back wrapper; internally portion of the fly-leaf is browned due exposure to sunlight, occasional foxing and fingerprints.

This "monological drama" (as described by the author in preface) in verse is one of the written by Shershenevich during the period of futurism, and his significant contribution to the movement.

The action of the dramatic play "...set in the city with its stone buildings, crowds, shouts, and noises, it presents a series of soliloquies by a futurist poet (Lirik), who is interrupted by numerous arguing or admiring people, machines, and objects. The poet both attracts and puzzles the people in his appeals to them to understand the city and to abandon the past. The soliloquies bear most of the traits of Shershenevich's poetry. In them, streetcars are "electrical sharks", motorcycles are linked to "fleas in the hair of mongrel dogs", women "flow out of doorways like saliva," and rhymes "crawl like lice." [Markov, V. Russian Futurism: A History. University of California Press. 1968. p. 377]

Markov called this play "…a poor imitation of Mayakovsky's tragedy 'Vladimir Mayakovsky', from which Shershenevich borrows motifs, background details, occasional phrases, and the method of the hyperbolic grotesque…", and which also reminds of Marinetti's ' satiric tragedy 'King Bomnabce' "…the poet, for example, harangues against old men or against culture…also many uninteresting sound imitations, obviously patterned on Marinetti."

During his career, Russian avant-garde writer Vadim Shershenevich (1893-1942) was influenced in turn by futurism, imaginism, and symbolism. But wide recognition has gained as founder and leader of Imaginism, beginning with the first manifesto in 1919 (also signed by Esenin and Marienhof).