[FIRST GORKY’S MOTHER] Mat’ [i.e. Mother]
Berlin: J. Ladyschnikow, 1907. Item #229
437 pp. 21x16 cm. In later binding. Small spot on the title page. Otherwise very good.
First separate edition. Title in Russian and German.
Mother was written by Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) in 1906 during his travels in USA. First printed was English translation in English periodical in 1906-1907. In 1907 first part of original Mother was printed in periodical «Znanie» (in three issues) but St. Petersburg censorship committee seized the issues. The court case was initiated against Gorky for anti-government propaganda and blasphemy (in censor report about the novel stated that it was «preaching socialism and anarchy»). The second part was printed in next issues but with big cuts (Gorky wrote that «Mother, broken into pieces, completely disappeared»). First full separate edition in original was published in 1907 in Berlin. In full the novel was printed in Russia for the first time only in 1917.
The novel was considered the best of Gorky’s works and the first work in the spirit of socialist realism - a literary style that was leading in Soviet times. The work was translated into many languages, and was made into a number of films. The political agenda behind the novel was clear. In 1905, after the defeat of Russian’s first revolution, Gorky tried to raise the spirit of the proletarian movement by conveying the political agenda among the readers through his work. He was trying to raise spirit among the revolutionaries to battle the defeatist mood.
WorldCat locates copies in Columbia, Harvard, Yale.
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