Pis'mo. (The Letter)
Iliazd (Ilia Zdanevich)
(Paris). Sorok Pervyĭ Gradus (41º / Le Degré Quarante et Un / Forty-One Degrees). 1948
The first edition of Iliazd's poem 'Pis'mo' (The Letter) inspired by the poet's meeting with fellow emigré Princess Olga Djordjadze in Cannes in 1946.
From the edition limited to 60 copies each signed and numbered by Iliazd in pencil, with this one of 30 on vélin pur fil du Marais; Iliazd has dated the justification '9449' in pencil in his characteristic format.
The poem 'Pis'mo', one of very few written in France that were published, was inspired by Iliazd's meeting of Olga Djordjadze in 1946 and composed at the end of the same year . Djordjadze had accused Iliazd of undertaking 'shameful' work (he was engaged in writing a doctoral thesis in Russian for another). Iliazd's response to Djordjadze was: 'For whom, then, do you want me to write in Russian?' to which she responded: 'I would wish that it be only for me'. The result was a poem filled with romantic love, nostalgia and the impossibility of fulfilment.
The printed poem - first published in 1948 in characteristic Iliazd format with clear and exact typography and meticulous printing by Dmitri Snegarov and Volf Chalit at l'Imprimerie Union in limited numbers on special paper and enclosed in sheets of different blank wrappers - marks the beginning of Iliazd's major period of book production and led to one of Iliazd's most important collaborations with Picasso. The second collaboration with Picasso (the first was 'Afat' of 1940) 'Pis'mo: Escrito por Iliazd. Grabado por Picasso', also published in 1948 takes the text of the poem 'Pis'mo' but features two title pages, one in Russian (for Djordjadze) and one in Spanish (for Picasso) and is illustrated with 6 of Picasso's engravings.
'One of Iliazd's last Russian-language books, it was written at the urging of Olga Djordjadze ... Their mutual enthusiasm at their common languages promted a hiking trip in Provence ... the text of The Letter was full of longing, unrequited and unrequitable love ... Details of Iliazd's relationship with Djordjadze surfaced in a series of letters that give evidence of a strong connection and emotional bond, and the 'Letter' of the title details an impossible romantic love.' (Johanna Drucker).
This version of 'Pis'mo', limited to 60 copies, is scarce and we can trace copies at the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Germany and at the NYPL and Yale in the US only.
[see Johanna Drucker's 'Iliazd - A Meta-Biography of a Modernist', 2020; not in Cramer but see 48; not in Isselbacher].
From the edition limited to 60 copies each signed and numbered by Iliazd in pencil, with this one of 30 on vélin pur fil du Marais; Iliazd has dated the justification '9449' in pencil in his characteristic format.
The poem 'Pis'mo', one of very few written in France that were published, was inspired by Iliazd's meeting of Olga Djordjadze in 1946 and composed at the end of the same year . Djordjadze had accused Iliazd of undertaking 'shameful' work (he was engaged in writing a doctoral thesis in Russian for another). Iliazd's response to Djordjadze was: 'For whom, then, do you want me to write in Russian?' to which she responded: 'I would wish that it be only for me'. The result was a poem filled with romantic love, nostalgia and the impossibility of fulfilment.
The printed poem - first published in 1948 in characteristic Iliazd format with clear and exact typography and meticulous printing by Dmitri Snegarov and Volf Chalit at l'Imprimerie Union in limited numbers on special paper and enclosed in sheets of different blank wrappers - marks the beginning of Iliazd's major period of book production and led to one of Iliazd's most important collaborations with Picasso. The second collaboration with Picasso (the first was 'Afat' of 1940) 'Pis'mo: Escrito por Iliazd. Grabado por Picasso', also published in 1948 takes the text of the poem 'Pis'mo' but features two title pages, one in Russian (for Djordjadze) and one in Spanish (for Picasso) and is illustrated with 6 of Picasso's engravings.
'One of Iliazd's last Russian-language books, it was written at the urging of Olga Djordjadze ... Their mutual enthusiasm at their common languages promted a hiking trip in Provence ... the text of The Letter was full of longing, unrequited and unrequitable love ... Details of Iliazd's relationship with Djordjadze surfaced in a series of letters that give evidence of a strong connection and emotional bond, and the 'Letter' of the title details an impossible romantic love.' (Johanna Drucker).
This version of 'Pis'mo', limited to 60 copies, is scarce and we can trace copies at the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Germany and at the NYPL and Yale in the US only.
[see Johanna Drucker's 'Iliazd - A Meta-Biography of a Modernist', 2020; not in Cramer but see 48; not in Isselbacher].
[6 folded sheets: 24 leaves including initial and terminal blanks]. 12mo. (186 x 136 mm). Leaf with title, leaf with dedication ('Olga'), leaf with text recto, 11 leaves with text recto and verso, leaf with conclusion of text recto (text pages numbered 6 - 28 at lower right, final page dated '1946') final leaf with achevé d'imprimer and justification; printed text with Iliazd's verse in four-line stanzas in Russian in Cyrillic throughout on uncut sheets, printed at L'Imprimerie Union. Loose as issued in original thick wove jacket with printed title to front cover in black.
#48260
