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[ANONYMOUS KHARKIV AVANT-GARDE] Gromy o mramor: Stikhi 1924-25 goda [i.e. Thunders against Marble: Verses of 1924-1925]

Aseev, N.

Kharkiv: Proletarii, 1926. Item #1289

102, [2] pp. 17x15 cm. In original avant-garde wrappers with an unknown monogram. Spine, covers and title page repaired, otherwise very good.
First and only edition. One of 3000 copies. Scarce.
Anonymous cover design shows a typical contemporary approach of illustration of a two-word expression. The artist focused on the title, not the book content. In this case, one word was stylized under thunder while the second one was hidden on a block of marble. A letter O between them is duplicated and at the same time means a point of contact between these two opposite sides.
The poetry book of the LEF period that existed in 1923–1928. The futurist poet Nikolai Aseev (1889–1963) was a member of the groups ‘Tsentrifuga’ [Centrifuge], ‘Tvorchestvo’ [Creativity], LEF [Leftist Front of the Arts]. Aseev was influenced a lot by Vladimir Mayakovsky, was close with him and other figures of Russian avant-garde.
Aseev appeared in the press in 1909. He studied in Moscow and Kharkiv universities. During the Civil war, Aseev served in the Far East and worked in a local periodical. In 1922, he came back to Moscow after a call from Lunacharskii and turned in at the forefront of the Soviet avant-garde. This collection consists of three sections of verses, among them agitprop poetry for women’s liberation and for a proletarian revolution in China.

Worldcat shows copies located in Princeton, Stanford, Indiana Universities.

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