Zapiski poeta: povest' [Notes of a poet: a tale] by Sel'vinskii, Il'ia and El Lissitsky, designer

Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1928. Octavo (17 × 12.5 cm). Original photo-illustrated wrappers by El Lissitzky; 91, [3] pp. With the folding sheet (measuring 47 × 44 cm). A very good copy, with only very light wear to spine and wrapper edges; the fold-out is also very well-preserved. An unusually attractive copy. First and only edition of this semi-autobiographical narrative poem, perhaps one of the best-known examples of the constructivist literary style invented by Il'ia Sel'vinskii (1899-1968), the Russian-Jewish writer, playwright, and poet. After serving in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, Sel'vinskii led the Literary Center of Constructivists in Moscow, where he published collections of poetry and longer poems. Victor Terras notes of his approach: "Selvinsky was one of the first Soviet writers to do serious technical research toward his literary work and to view writing poetry as a goal-directed rational activity" (Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature, 394). Sel'vinskii is known for his experimentations with Yiddishisms, linguistic register, and poetic form and versification, such as taktovat. Following the anti-Formalism campaigns of the late 1920s, he attempted to toe the Party line with his propagandistic poem "From Palestine to Birobidzhan" (written in 1930, published in 1933). The wrappers feature a striking design by El Lissitsky (Lazar M. Lisitsky, 1890-1941), signed by him on the rear wrapper. It juxtaposes a photomontage "double portrait" of the Dadaist poet Hans Arp against the background of an issue of Picabia's Dada periodical 391. The ears of the two different images have been swapped. The name of the poet-protagonist of Selvinsky's work, Evgenii Nei, is printed on Arp's collar. One of 3000 copies. Uncommon in comparable condition, with the large folding sheet fully intact. Getty 700. MoMA 750.