AKHMATOVA, Anna (Pushkin. Issledovanzya i materiali). Pushkin. Research and Materials. Volume II. Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Science, 1958
Tall octavo, original printed self-wrappers. First edition, an offprint of Akhmatova's article on Pushkin's Stone Guest. Presentation copy; inscribed at the top of the first page of text: To dear Kozlovskis, with faith-fullove, Akhmatova, 24 Sept. 1958, Leningrad. Akhmatova, who grew up in Tsarskoye Selo, always felt a peculiar kinship with Pushkin, whose home was also there (the village is now renamed Pushkin) and without any opportunity to publish her own poetry, she naturally turned to scholarship, and to Pushkin as her subject. Pushkin had long been Akhmatova's mentor and spiritual counterpart, ever since she felt his presence as a child in Tsarskoye Selo. She returned to him often. . . During the 1920s, her work on Pushkin took on a more serious aspect, and as Akhmatova began to write less verse, the poet turned into the poet-scholar, exploring the depths of erudite and personal association in the works of Russia's.great writer. - Reeder, Anna Akhmatova, p. 183. Akhmatova published her first article on Pushkin in 1933, and over the ensuing years, in the face of initial skepticism on the part of the academic community, proved again and again her vast, intimate and often revelatory knowledge of Pushkin's work. A very good copy.
$US2500
This item is listed on Bibliopoly by Lame Duck Books; click here for further details.