Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

Translated by john cournos with decorations by paul nash. binding and format designed by paul nash. this edition is strictly limited to seven hundred and fifty copies on malliol hand-made paper. this copy is number 173. set and printed by hand.

Item Description

Tall 8vo. 10.75 x 7 inches. [vi] + 23 + [2] blank + [iiii] + [1] pp. + [2] blank + [1] pp. colophon. Title page and some text in red and black. All text in Gothic script. Bound in original orange morocco, with black and white inlay panel on front board. Rough cut edges. Boards darkened with age. A little wear to corners, lower board edges and head and tail of spine. Foxing of flyleaf edges and traces elsewhere; otherwise a very good copy. Decorated by 4 abstract wood engravings, including headpiece, verso of title page, and endpiece vignettes. A folk epic poem, set in the reign of Czar Ivan IV (1530-84), by the great Russian writer, often compared to Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov (1814-41), who was shot in a duel, and first published 1837. Translated by Ukrainian born US writer and promoter of Russian literature, John Cournos (1881-1966), who wrote the note on Lermontov. A handsome work designed and illustrated by Paul Nash (1881-1966). The Aquila Press existed 1929-30.