15. BEZYMENSKII, Aleksandr Ilich (1898-1973). Tragediinaya noch [The Night of Tragedy]. Moscow: "Khudozhestvennaya Literatura," 1935. Second edition. 40 pp, 8vo (292 x 220 mm). Designed by E. Pernikov with photomotages by V. Griuntal. Publisher's silver decorated gray cloth, pictorial endpapers with the original photomontage dust jacket. Condition: light staining to boards; jacket with repairs to verso, corners clipped, small stamp and ink marks to rear flap.
the famous agit-prop photo book in the rare dust jacket. This is the second edition of the poem but the first in this format. Bezymenskii was an early advocate of proletarian literature and famously declared, "First of all I am a member of the Party, and only afterwards a maker of verses." This epic poem about Soviet heroism in taming the Dnepr River in the Ukraine with its famous mammoth hydroelectric plant introduces an American engineer who converts to Communism. Griuntal's striking blue photomontages are in the dynamic agit-prop manner of Rodchenko and Telingater. Not in MoMA, Getty or NYPL. With a photograph of the author (230 x 170 mm). (2)
est. $2000 – $3000