Beschreibung:

PUSHKIN, Alexander (1799-1837). Ruslan i Liudmila. Poema v shesti pesniakh . [Ruslan and Liudmila. A Poem in Six Cantos.] St Petersburg: N. Grech, 1820. The first edition, first issue, of Pushkin’s rare first book, in a contemporary Russian binding. RBH and ABPC record only three copies having sold at auction. Pushkin began writing this mock epic while still at the Tsarskoe Selo lyceum, and continued to work on it from 1817 to 1820, between drinking bouts, gambling sprees and duels. Ruslan and Liudmila was published in June 1820, but Pushkin would not see a copy for at least a year: he was already exiled to Southern Russia for writing scandalous epigrams about the Imperial family. Pushkin’s epic poem proved a resounding success and sold out quickly. Smirnov-Sokol’skii notes that the earliest copies of Ruslan and Liudmila were issued without a frontispiece – the engraving by Ivanov was published later, and also made available separately for buyers of early copies; this copy, in a contemporary Russian binding and without frontispiece, is evidently one of those rare early copies. Kilgour 874; Smirnov-Sokol’skii, Pushkin , 1. Octavo (224 x 127mm). Complete with the final blank; printed on laid paper watermarked '1819' (small wormhole affecting one word in leaf 1.8; occasional light soiling and light spotting). Contemporary mottled sheep, flat spine in compartments with applied bands of gilt red leather, printed spine label, edges sprinkled blue (label perhaps renewed; some wear to the edges with minor repairs). Extra-illustrated with a later issue of the Ivanov engraving loosely inserted. Provenance : M.V. Evseev (label, with the manuscript press-mark '578').