Khlebnikov, V[elimir] and K[irill] Zdanevich, illustrator; A[leksei] Kruchenykh, editor.

[AVANT-GARDE – RUSSIAN DADA] Zverinets [The Zoo]. With an introduction by Iurii Olesha.

Moscow: Gruppa druzei Khlebnikova, 1930. Octavo (21 × 17.5 cm). Original side-stapled wrappers with lithographed design by Kirill Zdanevich; 17 leaves of lithographed typescript to rectos. Wrappers somewhat toned at edges; some wear to spine and fraying to spine strip; still good or better. Item #P6198

The first and only separate edition of the poem “The Zoo” by Velimir Khlebnikov (1885–1922), published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the poem’s appearance in the first Futurist almanach, "Sudok Sudei" in 1909. Best remembered for his zaum (trans-sense) poetic experiments, Khlebnikov was also one of the authors of the central manifesto of Russian Futurism, "A slap in the face of public taste" (1913), as well as the prelude to the Futurist opera "Victory over the sun" (1913). After his early death, fellow Futurist poet and collaborator Aleksei Kruchenykh took on the work of editing and publishing this posthumous series. "In a move that recalled his first forays into publishing and early lithographed books, Kruchenykh returned to self-publishing and to the use of non-mechanical printing presses, producing books with manuscript text by steklopechat (glass printing), a lithography-like process, to produce edition sizes of up to 150 copies. […] Each was written in longhand by various artists and authors and featured new or previously unpublished illustrations" (See Rowell and Wye, The Russian Avant-garde book 1910–1934, pp. 248). All in all, thirty volumes were prepared for publication in 1928–1933, with only twenty four published. The wrappers for the various volumes were designed by avant-garde artists such as Kirill Zdanevich, Igor’ Terent’ev, Natalia Gontcharova, and Ivan Klyun.

Known as a “poet’s poet” and famous for his neologisms, Khlebnikov is commemorated in this volume with an introduction by the modernist master Iurii Olesha. Aleksei Kruchenykh wrote the biographical note in this volume. The poem itself inspired many literary tributes, and was quoted in its entirety in an epigraph for Viktor Shklovsky’s “Zoo, or Letters not about Love” (1923). One of 130 copes published.

As of March 2026, KVK, OCLC show three copies worldwide, of which one in North America (a second listed copy being a photocopy).

Price: €1,800.00

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