Mayakovsky, Vladimir.

[MAYAKOVSKY VISITS MEXICO – EARLY SOVIET TRAVEL WRITING] Proza Maiakovskogo: Meksika [Mayakovsky’s prose: Mexico]. Biblioteka Ogonek, no. 40 (765), series title.

Moscow: Zhurnal’no-gazetnoe Ob’edinenie Moskva, 1933. Small octavo (15 × 11 cm). Original side-stapled pictorial wrappers; 48 pp. Insignificant chipping of the lower edge of the wrapper; overall about very good. Item #53087

Early edition of Mayakovsky's account of his journey to the New World in 1925, first published as "Moe otkrytie Ameriki" (My Discovery of America) in 1926. Here the title of a short text about Mexico has been used as the edition's title; the volume also contains other descriptions of his time in Mexico. The Russian Futurist poet and literary giant set out on his journey in 1925, the same year when the official Soviet State policy shifted from its aim of building socialism internationally to the idea of building socialism in one country. This resulted in a significant decrease of the permission for international travel of key cultural representatives, with Mayakovsky himself losing his right to travel only four years later.

Mayakovsky describes his arrival to Mexico by sea and his subsequent travels within the country, observing how the infrastructures of travel and life are shaped, in his understanding, by the destructive force of US imperialism. His writing possesses an imaginative literary language supplied with distinct emotional involvement of first impressions; being invited to a bullfight, he walks out not to witness the unbearable death of a “comrade bull,” who he dreams could be supplied with a machine gun on top of its horns and trained to defend himself. He describes meeting important figures of art and politics, such as famous painter and muralist Diego Rivera, with whom he shares dinners and museum visits. The travelogue is extended by Mayakovsky’s assessment of the current state of different forms of arts and a political situation in Mexico. Fragments of poems that were written by the poet about Mexico are included in the edition.

See also: Richardson, William Harrison, Mexico Through Russian Eyes, 1806–1940. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988.

As of December 2023, KVK, OCLC show only one copy of this edition, in Germany, with none found in North America.

Price: €550.00

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