"Soviet Land", A Volume of Poetry by Sergei Yesenin – Tbilisi, 1925 – A Copy with an Addition of Two Handwritten ...

"Soviet Land", A Volume of Poetry by Sergei Yesenin – Tbilisi, 1925 – A Copy with an Addition of Two Handwritten Poems: "A Letter to Mother" and "I Have Never Been to the Bosphorus"
Страна советская [Soviet Land], by Sergei Yesenin. Tbilisi: Советский Кавказ (Sovetskii Kavkaz), 1925. Russian. Cover design by Kirill Zdanevich.
A copy of the book "Soviet Land" by Russian poet Sergei Yesenin. The book, comprising fifteen poems, was printed in Tbilisi in the last year of the poet's life and is one of Yesenin's last publications.
Two handwritten poems were added to this copy (both published in other books of poetry by Yesenin): the poem "I Have Never been to the Bosphorus" [Никогда я не был на Босфоре, from the anthology "Persian Motifs"] was written on verso of the title page; and the poem "A Letter to Mother" [Письмо матери, from the anthology "Soviet Russia"] was written on the last page and back cover. These two handwritten poems are among Yesenin's best works. The love poem "I Have Never been to the Bosphorus" was first published in 1925 and refers to various places and cities that the poet did not get to see (several month after the poem was published, Yesenin committed suicide by hanging); the poem "A Letter to Mother" was written in 1924 and is considered one of Yesenin's well-known and most-loved poems (the decision to copy this particular poem is highly interesting since the book "Soviet Land" contains the poem's "partner" – "A Letter from Mother").
Sergei Yesenin's handwriting changed dramatically over his short life. At first, he used to write in cursive, with dense, slightly tilted characters. Later, his handwriting became upright and the characters separated from each other. The poems added to this copy are written in a hand resembling Yesenin's early handwriting and were possibly handwritten by Yesenin himself.
The poet Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was born in 1895 in the village of Konstantinovo (Russia). Country life, working the land and Russian nature greatly impacted his poetry; Yesenin called himself "the last poet of the village". In 1914, he published his first poems in the Russian journal "Mirok" (Мирок) and a year later moved to St. Petersburg, instantly becoming one of the most well-known poets in the Russian literary circles. His meteoric rise was described by the author Maxim Gorky as "A barrage of praise [that] hit him… excessive and often insincere". After the October Revolution Yesenin gradually turned to more avant-garde realms, founding with other artists the Imaginist art movement, whose fans he described as "prostitutes and bandits". In 1921, he met the American dancer Isadora Duncan and although they did not speak each other's language, they fell in love and decided to marry. Their life together was highly turbulent. Yesenin accompanied Duncan on a tour of Europe and the USA. During that time, he started showing signs of alcoholism and exhibited erratic and explosive behavior. During a visit to Paris, after breaking mirrors and windows at the hotel where he was staying, he was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital.
In 1923, the couple decided to separate and Yesenin returned to Moscow. In spite of the depression he suffered in his last years, Yesenin persisted in his writing and even travelled to Azerbaijan and Georgia (where this book was published). On December 28, 1925, Yesenin committed suicide in his room at the Hotel Angleterre in St. Petersburg. An envelope he gave to his friend, the poet Wolf Ehrlich, several hours earlier contained his last poem which ends with the following lines: "To die, in this life, is not new / And living’s no newer, of course". After his death, Yesenin became a Russian cultural hero. His sensational life story, tragic death and great talent earned him a place of honor among the greatest Russian poets and he is mentioned in the same breath as Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Blok and Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Despite being mistreated by the authorities and although many of his works were banned, Yesenin continued to be one of the most popular poets well into the 1930s and 1940s until eventually, in the late 1960s, it was permitted to republish his books. In Hebrew poetry Yesenin had several important followers (including Leah Goldberg and Avraham Shlonsky), the most prominent of which was poet Alexander Penn. Penn became acquainted with Yesenin in his youth and was greatly influences by him. It is told that in a moment of inebriation, Yesenin gave him the name Penn, as his original name – Pepliker-Stern – was too long and awkward to his taste.
The cover of the book was designed by Kirill Zdanevich (Кирилл Зданевич, 1892-1969). Zdanevich, born in Tbilisi, started painting in an early age. In 1910 he moved to Moscow and later studied art in St. Petersburg. He participated in various Futurist publications and was a member of the Donkey's Tail avant-garde group, headed by Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova. He lived in Moscow, Paris, Istanbul and Tbilisi. Among his other artistic pursuits, he worked as a book, stage and costume designer. He was a prominent figure in the avant-garde circles of Georgia.
62, [1] pp, approx. 20 cm. Good-fair condition. The gatherings are detached from the cover and from each other (the title page remains connected to the cover). Small tears to edges of some of the leaves. Stains and minor creases to some of the leaves. Stains, small tears and creases to cover. Pencil signature on front cover and title page.