Beschreibung:

ESENIN, Sergei (1895-1925). Radunitsa . [Ritual for the Dead]. Petrograd: M.V Aver’ianov, 1916. The first edition of the author’s first book. One of the so-called ‘peasant poets’, Esenin had among his earliest supporters A. Blok and N. Kliuev. Freshly arrived in Petrograd from his hometown in the Russian provinces, he debuted, to a relative success, with this collection. The title, untranslatable as such but sometimes rendered as Ritual for the Dead , was the name of a pagan funeral rite of the ancient Slavs held in the spring. Kilgour 301 (1921 edition). C. Moser, ed., The Cambridge History of Russian Literature , p. 447. Octavo (195 x 135mm). With the final advertisements, edges uncut (uniform slight age browning, upper edge of last leaf unopened). In the original publisher’s boards, in modern folding box (very minor repair to joints and extremities). Provenance: autograph E. Cherniak (half-title).