Milev, Geo (editor, publisher, and illustrator).

[BULGARIAN MODERNISM – AVANT-GARDE] Zhestokiiat prusten: purva kniga stikhove [The cruel ring: first book of verse].; Knigi za bibliofil [Books for bibliophiles; series title], vol. 3

Sofia: Vezni [Pridvornata Pechatnitsa], 1920. Octavo (25 × 16.5 cm). Original printed wrappers; [31] pp., [1] frontis three-color linocut by the author. Printed on laid paper. Wrappers lightly discolored; some expert paper repair to edges and spine extremities; overall about very good. Item #P004051

First edition of this book of expressionist and anti-militaristic poems by Geo Milev (1895–1925), perhaps the leading Bulgarian literary critic and poet of his time. The work was also his first published volume of poems. Milev was also active in the visual arts; this volume, the third title in his series of "Books for bibliophiles" features a striking linocut in black, blue, and bright orange. With handsomely executed typography, printed in green and black. "In Bulgaria, Expressionism appeared as a result of the experience in the war which led to a turning point in the individual consciousness of the intellectuals in conjunction with a sharpened social and spiritual crisis... The Expressionist artistic form developed by Geo Milev during and after the war proved that the moment had come for a new way of combining the 'native' with the 'foreign'" (Evelina Kelbetcheva, "Between Apology and Denial: Bulgarian Culture during World War I,” in Aviel Roshwald and Richard Stites, eds, European Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment and Propaganda, 1914–1918, p. 235). Milev began his career as a translator and popularizer of Western poets and philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche. He became a leading propagandist of modernist and avant-garde tendencies in Bulgaria and edited the eponymous avant-garde and modernist journal, which appeared from 1919 to 1921. By the early 1920s, his own work became increasingly political and in 1924 he began publishing the leftist journal "Plamak" (Flame). Milev began to provoke scrutiny by the authorities and was evidently killed during an interrogation after the bombing of a Sofia cathedral by communists.

Scarce, with KVK, OCLC showing copies at New York Public Library and Chicago only (both rebound as part of a convolute?).

Price: €750.00

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