A. Akhmatova. Five first editions by Akhmatova, Nikolay Gumilev, Mikhail Kuzmin and Georgiy Ivanov 1921-1923

AKHMATOVA, ANNA
Six editions of poetry by Akhmatova, Nikolay Gumilev, Mikhail Kuzmin and Georgiy Ivanov, dedication issues for Saveli Grinberg, St Petersburg [printed in Berlin]: Petropolis, 1921-1923

A. Akhmatova, Podorozhnik ("Plantain"), Petrograd [Berlin], 1921, 58 pages, 12mo, decorated front wrapper in black and yellow, with the printed dedication from the publisher: "Ekzemplar Saveliya Isaakovicha Grinberga",
A. Akhmatova, Anno Domini, Peterburg, 1923, 105 pages, 8vo, the first poem titled: 'Sograzhdanam' ("Fellow citizens"), deckle edges
N. Gumilev, Ognennyy Stolp ("Pillar of Fire"), first edition, Peterburg, 1921, 73 pages, 12mo, "Ekzemplar Saveliya Isaakovicha Grinberga"--second edition, in old orthography, Peterburg-Berlin, 1922, 70 pages, 8vo, "Ekzemplar S. I. Grinberga",some dampstaining
M. Kuzmin, Nezdeshnie Vechera ("Mysterious Evenings"), Peterburg, 1921, 134 pages, 8vo, "Ekzemplar Saveliya Isaakovicha Grinberga", statement of limitation, illustrated wrapper ("...Stikhi 1914-1920...")
G. Ivanov, Sady ("Gardens"), Peterburg, 1921, 90 pages, 16mo, "Ekzemplar Saveliya Isaakovicha Grinberga", decorated wrapper
6 volumes in all, printed wrappers, yapp edges, some light dustmarking

RARE: These are ad personam issues for the writer Dr Saveli Isaakovich Grinberg (1896-1985), who was the head administrator at the Petropolis publishing house in Berlin-Schöneberg.

The first poem in Akhmatova's book Anno Domini (1923), " I my zabyli navsegda", is published here with the title 'Sograzhdanam'. It appears with alterations (as 'Petrograd 1919'), in the edition of her collected poems, Stikhotvoreniya i poemi [Poems], (1976). We understand that very few copies were printed of the original version of this poem. Gumilev was Akhmatova's first husband: by the time of this second edition, he had already been shot by the Cheka (in August 1921). For the autograph of one poem in Gumilev's Ognennyy Stolp, and brief notes on Grinberg, please see lot 23.

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