![Item #2002 [SOVIET PROPAGANDA PLAY] Nel’zya zabyt’: Drama v 3 deystv. i 12 kartinakh po romanu E. Sinklera [i.e. Can’t Be Forgotten: Drama in 3 Acts and 12 Scenes Based on U. Sinclaire’s Novel]. S. Prokofiev.](https://bookvica.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/2002.png?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1714480195)
![[SOVIET PROPAGANDA PLAY] Nel’zya zabyt’: Drama v 3 deystv. i 12 kartinakh po romanu E. Sinklera [i.e. Can’t Be Forgotten: Drama in 3 Acts and 12 Scenes Based on U. Sinclaire’s Novel]](https://bookvica.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/2002_2.png?auto=webp&v=1714480195)
[SOVIET PROPAGANDA PLAY] Nel’zya zabyt’: Drama v 3 deystv. i 12 kartinakh po romanu E. Sinklera [i.e. Can’t Be Forgotten: Drama in 3 Acts and 12 Scenes Based on U. Sinclaire’s Novel]
Item #2002
Moscow; Leningrad: Gos. izd-vo, 1928). 125, [2] pp. 19.7x13.5 cm. In original publisher’s illustrated wrappers by Boris Titov. Loss of the pieces of the spine, otherwise near fine.
Scarce. First edition. Front wrapper by Boris Titov (1897-1951), a Soviet graphic artist, book illustrator, and an absolute record holder for the number of books designed in the USSR. After studying for a short time at the Faculty of Medicine of the Imperial Moscow University in the late-1910s, Boris redirected his passion toward painting and enrolled in the 2nd State Art Workshops. By 1922, he shifted his focus to book design and quickly gained recognition as one of the foremost Soviet book illustrators. Over nearly three decades, Titov primarily specialized
in designing covers, bindings, dust jackets, title pages, headpieces, and occasionally illustrations for works by prominent authors D. Bedny, A. Gaidar, N. Gogol, S. Yesenin, etc. In his early career, Titov embraced the constructivist concept in book design, later evolving his style into a distinctive version of Art Deco.
A three-act agitational play penned by the Soviet director and playwright Sergey Prokofiev (1890-1944) amidst a severe decline in his professional reputation. The play tells the story of the confrontation between American communists and capitalists, culminating in the agonizing demise of a socialist activist. The play debuted on the stage of the Workers’ Theater Workshop in Krasnoyarsk as the inaugural production for the 1927/1928 season.
Sergei Prokofiev graduated from the Petersburg Theater School in the class of A. I. Dolinov in 1911. In 1922, Prokofiev, along with a small group of actors, arrived in Moscow, where he soon founded and became the chief director of the Moscow Art Theater (1923-1925). After the failure of several productions, including Henrik Ibsen’s Nora [i.e. Burrow] (1923), Sergei Prokofiev’s reputation began to catastrophically decline. The MGSPS Theater became a target for critics: Sergei Gorodetsky referred to Prokofiev’s work as a “wretched affair.” He wrote, “MGSPS
is seriously ill with cancer. The malignant tumor completely strangled the healthy foundation of MGSPS theatrical work....” As a result, in early 1925, Prokofiev was relieved of all positions within the MGSPS system. Unwilling to continue working in Moscow, Prokofiev went to Krasnoyarsk and organized the Artistic Agitation Group at the House of Party Education, which existed from 1926 to 1929 as Rabtemast. After spending the 1928/1929 season in Krasnoyarsk, S. Prokofiev and the collective moved to Bogorodsk in the Moscow region. He passed away in 1944 at the age of 54, unable to recover his professional standing.
No copies found in Worldcat.