[RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE] Imazhinizm i ego obrazonostsy: Esenin, Kusikov, Mariengof, Shershenevich [Imaginism and its image-bearers: Esenin, Kusikov, Mariengof, Shershenevich]. Mark Slonim's copy.
[Moscow or Tallinn]: Ordnas, 1921. Large octavo (26.5 × 17 cm). Original staple-stitched pamphlet; 68 pp. Ownership note of Mark Slonim, Berlin, 1921. Lacking the very fragile printed wrappers; text somewhat toned and water-stained to margins; else about very good. Item #P6575
First and only edition of this important treatise about four of the Russian "Imaginists" (Imazhinisty), one of the leading avant-garde literary movements, which included the poets Sergei Esenin, Anatoli Mariengof, Vadim Shershenevich, and Aleksandr Kusikov. Most closely associated with the Futurists, Imaginists were especially active in Moscow 1919–1924 and were popular with the audiences for the anarchic and sensationalist tendencies in their poetry. Shershenevich was in continuous competition with the Futurist Vladimir Maiakovsky; the two poets both wrote texts for the ROSTA (Russian Telegraph Agency) window displays during the Russian Civil War (1918–1922). Chapters include: "Imaginism as a school," "Futurism beneath a mask" (a valuable analysis of the Imaginists in the context of both Russian and West European Futurism), as well as four short essays on each of the protagonists. The author, Vasilii Rogachevskii (1874–1930), was an important Menshevik critic and historian of literature, as well as a long-time political activist, who was arrested numerous times and exiled for three years prior to the 1917 Revolution. Shortly after the October Revolution he distanced himself from politics, authoring numerous works on literature and lecturing to Proletkul't members and other schools. This copy was owned by Russian writer, literary scholar, teacher, and political activist Mark Slonim (1894–1976), a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (SR) and an anti-Bolshevik activist until 1918, when he managed to flee via Vladivostok and Japan, eventually settling in Germany, Prague, and Paris. Scarce in the trade.
Price: €150.00