Lot 81A email save

KUZMIN, Mikhail Alekseevich (1872-1936). Signed le

Sign In to see what this sold for

In pencil on ruled paper. (100 x 150 mm). Signed and dated January 31, 1936. Condition: mottled toning, glue residue on verso not affecting script. NOTE SENT TO THE PHYSICIAN SHORTLY BEFORE THE POET'S DEATH. Kuzmin requests that Dr. Tushinskii come to his apartment and refers to his longtime companion Iurii Iurkin who lived with him. [With:] Photograph of Iurii Iurkin, Kuzmin and Aleksei Stepanov in the Summer Garden, Leningrad, August 18, 1934. On receiving this photo from Stepanov on September 15, Kuzmin wrote in his diary, "In certain pictures even we could look like men about town." This print is labeled "Kuzmin v tsentr' ["Kuzmin in the center"] in ink and dated September 6, 1934 in pencil on the verso. See Malmstad and Bogomolov p. 253. [And:] Nezdeshnie vechera [Otherworldly Evenings]. Petersburg: ["Petropolis"] 1921. 135 pp., 4to (170 x 125 mm). Original decorated wrappers designed by Mstislav Valeryanovich Dobuzhinsky. Printed by Golike and Wilborg. Condition: wrappers slightly soiled; white out to half title resulting in toning to the following few leaves. NUMBER 76 OF 100 NUMBERED COPIES OUT OF AN EDITION OF 1000. The above photograph was at one time affixed to the publisher's mark page in the front of this volume The poet Marina Tsvetaeva recalled coming across this book in a shop: "I open it up: like a lance in my heart-St. George! White St. George! My St. George, the saint whose life I have been writing for two months. Jealousy and joy, a two-edged sword: I read-and the joy grows, I finish-and the serpent of jealousy is pierced, nailed down." (3)

View Bloomsbury Auctions next auction.

Similar lots up for auction