Kogujai Kirjandus-kultuuri koguteos by Visnapuu, Henrik - 1949

USA: Eestlaste Kirjastuse Valjaanne. Early Edition . Soft cover. G+ (Good Plus). 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Salome Trei'lt. No date, but c. 1947. Possibly the 1st US edition. Not numbered. Tan wraps with light edgewear, creasing and soil. Spine ends and corners bumped, with small tears to the former. Light soil to text block. Binding sound, spine not creased, text clean. Text in the original Estonian. Interior toned. Pen-and-ink b/w illustrations; tipped-in frontispiece portrait of the author is lightly creased. No previous owner names, stickers or stamps. Not ex-library. 237pp. Scarce!

KIRJATUS VABA EESI STOCKHOLM, 1964. HDJ. VG / G+. VERY-GOOD EXCEPT DUSTJACKET(s) MODERATELY EDGEWORN AND CHIPPED TWO VOLUME SET

Tallinn: Autorikaitse Ühingu Kirjastus, 1937 Large octavo, wrappers, 80pp. Cover design by F. Randelit. “The word journey,” a collection of poems. Worldcat finds no library holdings.

Tartu: Loodus (H. Laakmann), 1928. First edition. In original, illustrated hard paper. Collection vignette on spine, collection number on cover. Publisher's stamp on the title page. In fine condition.. First edition. In original, illustrated hard paper. 75, [2] p. Henrik Visnapuu (1890-1951) was one of the most important Estonian poet and writer of the 20th century.

Tallinn: Varraku, 1920 Octavo 18x13 cm, wrappers, 78pp. Lithograph cover and tipped in color frontispiece as well as four pages of illustrations by Ado Vabbe. Vabbe (1892-1961) is regarded as one of the chief exponents of the avant-garde in Estonia. These works are figurative abstractions and graphic poems. Visnapuu (1890-1951) was an important member of the Siuru group of poets, early modernists who strove for unique expression and national identity. He emigrated in 1944, eventually settling in the USA. Rare, with one N. American library holding of the book.

First and only volume of this important publication of Estonian modernist art and literature, which marked a radical break with the "Siuru" movement around Marie Under of the late 1910s. The aesthetic and political orientation of Barbarus, Roht, and Visnapuu-each of whose work would develop along avant-gardistic lines in subsequent years-was sharply opposed to Under's refined lyricism. In what can be considered the loose group's manifesto, Visnapuu proclaims: "Long live the fresh heaps of manure!" and calls for a new, more authentic sensibility in a way that harkens back to Nietzsche. "The carcasses of dead gods still lie in the streets," Visnapuu writes, and exclaims: "Long live the new pathos [...] the pathos of emergency after chaos threatens to bury everything." Describing the state of contemporary literature, Visnapuu writes: "Anarchist art, neo-romanticism, impressionism, symbolism, futurism are all lowered into one gray, misshapen, and infinite fermenting mass. There is great chaos. Things… Read More