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[O. HENRY IN RUSSIAN] Amerikanskiye rasskazy [i.e. American Stories]

Henry, O.

Item #2529

Moscow; Petrograd: Giz, 1923. 202 pp. 18,1x13,3 cm. Owner’s cloth binding with original wrappers preserved. A label, indicating “Kunstverlag Olga Diakow & Co, Berlin” (a Russian publishing house in Germany, active from 1898 to 1930s) and a Berlin library with inventory number, mounted on both boards. Binding rubbed, pencil inscriptions on the title page, occasional staining, but otherwise in a very good condition.

Scarce. Text in Russian. Translated from English by Vladimir Ashkinazi (1873-1941), a Russian writer, translator, journalist, and theater critic, who also wrote under the pseudonym “V. Azov.” Ashkinazi completed his studies at a gymnasium in Lomzha and later attended lectures at universities in Paris, Zurich, and Bern. After the October Revolution, he lived in Petrograd and worked at the publishing house Vsemirnaya Literatura, overseeing the publication of over 40 volumes of works by foreign writers. In 1919, he was arrested as one of the leaders of the House of Writers. In 1926, Ashkinazi emigrated to France, where he served as treasurer of the Union of Russian Journalists. Considering that the USSR generally regarded Russian émigrés as enemies, it is quite surprising that this work survived the Soviet purges.
An early Russian translation and the first Soviet edition of O. Henry’s famous short stories: The Poet and the Peasant, The Pimienta Pancakes, The Sphinx Apple, Hearts and Crosses, Seats of the Haughty, The Missing Chord, The Ransom of Red Chief, Cupid à la Carte, Friends in San Rosario, The Caballero’s Way, A Bird of Bagdad, Babes in the Jungle, What You Want, Psyche and the Skyscraper, The Duel, and The Complete Life of John Hopkins.
The front wrapper, featuring the silhouette of a horseman, was designed by Russian Soviet artist, graphic designer, and illustrator Evgeniy Belukha (1889–1943). Belukha studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute (1909–1910) and the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1912–1913). A versatile master, he worked in easel painting, book illustration, and applied graphics, contributing to major Soviet publishers such as Gosizdat, Priboi, Academia, and Lenizdat.

As follows from the labels on both boards, the book was likely owned by a Soviet citizen who bought it before emigrating to Germany in the 1920s.
No copies found in Worldcat.

Price: $650.00