Search Results: Authors starting with D from PY Rare Books

First edition of this celebrated illustrated travelogue, in a spectacular binding with the arms of the Russian Empire. This is the first of Demidoff's travelogues to be published, with all plates printed on India paper.In 1837 Count Anatoliy Nikolaevich Demidoff, Prince of San Donato (1812-70), launched a geological expedition to Ukraine and Crimea at his own expense. He was accompanied on his travels by the artist Denis Raffet, who illustrated Demidoff's account.We have come across other examples of this impressive binding, sometimes without the double-headed eagle on the covers. This is the first we see in red morocco, and one of the rare ones with the binder's label.Description and Bibliographic referencesTall 8vo. (26 x 16.7 cm). Half-title, wood-engraved frontispiece on India paper, title, vii, 621, [3 including errata and table] pp., with 23 wood-engraved plates after Raffet, all printed on India paper mounted and with tissue guards, one page of sheet music, numerous wood engravings in text;… Read More

A two-page letter, beautifully signed, where Diaghilev is chasing a significant amount of money due by the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
38,524 francs is the amount Diaghilev is expecting following a charity gala, where his Ballets Russes performed "absolutely outside the usual cycle of [our] performances given in your theatre". He emphasizes the fact that both accounts, for the gala and for the regular performances, are "absolutely different [and] can't be mixed up".
The theatre mentioned is the celebrated Théâtre des Champs Elysées, where Diaghilev produced his most famous ballets before the World War in the 1910s. The gifted Jacques Hébertot became its director in 1920 (at the age of 34, 14 years younger than Diaghilev), and developed there the Ballets Suédois, a new competition for the Russians. It is however during this gala event on June 20, 1924, that the Ballets Russes created "Le Train Bleu", by Jean Cocteau and Darius Milhaud, with a choregraphy by Nijinsky.
Diaghilev's polite but… Read More

Very good example of the first edition, in contemporary binding; rare such.One of Dostoevsky's great novels, and the first of his books published by Dostoevsky himself.Besy captures "the full grandeur of Dostoevsky's extraordinary endeavor, which is nothing less than to write a symbolic history of the moral-spiritual travails of the Russian spirit" (Frank, pp.430-434). It is his most overtly political work, and a ruthless exposition of contemporary revolutionary movements. The serialisation of this work, in Katkov's periodical The Russian Messenger, broke down when Katkov refused to print 'Stavrogin's Confession', an episode which he found particularly shocking."As a political tract, a portrayal of sick minds, and a study of the manipulation of groups, 'The Possessed' remains Dostoevsky's masterpiece" (Terras).***Customers considering purchasing this item will be given a longer, much more detailed note on the work, its background, its influence***DescriptionThree parts in one volume 8vo (21.4 x 15.5… Read More