MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938.
O poezii. On Poetry. Leningrad: Academia, 1928.
8vo. 97, [2] pp. Original printed pink wrappers. Custom clamshell case. Text block coming loose from wrappers, title leaf tipped in.
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED FOR PAVEL MEDVEDEV at the head of the title-page: "To Pavel Nikolaevich before his departure. Yalta, August 28, 1928." Presentation inscriptions from Mandelstam are of the utmost rarity.
On Poetry was Mandelstam's final book before he died, embodying his poetic credo in a series of essays. The association between Mandelstam and Medvedev is a moving one, linking two of Stalin's victims: Medvedev was a literary scholar of Mikhail Bakhtin's circle and was arrested and "disappeared" in the late 1930s. As Mandelstam wrote, "Only in Russia is poetry respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder?" (Nadezhda Mandelstam, Memoirs).
8vo. 97, [2] pp. Original printed pink wrappers. Custom clamshell case. Text block coming loose from wrappers, title leaf tipped in.
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED FOR PAVEL MEDVEDEV at the head of the title-page: "To Pavel Nikolaevich before his departure. Yalta, August 28, 1928." Presentation inscriptions from Mandelstam are of the utmost rarity.
On Poetry was Mandelstam's final book before he died, embodying his poetic credo in a series of essays. The association between Mandelstam and Medvedev is a moving one, linking two of Stalin's victims: Medvedev was a literary scholar of Mikhail Bakhtin's circle and was arrested and "disappeared" in the late 1930s. As Mandelstam wrote, "Only in Russia is poetry respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder?" (Nadezhda Mandelstam, Memoirs).
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![MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp rectos only, 4to (conjoined leaves), [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled "Peterburgskie strofy" (Petersburg Stanzas),](http://images2.bonhams.com/image?src=Images/live/2012-10/25/8618774-20-3.jpg.tif&tmp=web075&top=0.000000&left=0.000000&right=1.000000&bottom=1.000000)
![MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Almanach 'Dom Iskusstv Num. I' [House of Arts. No 1.] Petersburg: 1921.<BR />](http://images2.bonhams.com/image?src=Images/live/2012-10/26/8618774-19-1.jpg.tif&tmp=web075&top=0.000000&left=0.000000&right=1.000000&bottom=1.000000)
