Russie

[RUSSIA] [TSARIST] "STEPNIAK" [pseud: STEPNYAK-KRAVCHINSKY, Sergey Mikhaylovich]ABAA

The Russian Peasantry: Their Agrarian Condition Social Life and Religion with Three ALS to Sonnenschein Regarding Publication

1888réf. 84805New York: Harper and Brothers 1888. First Edition. Octavo. 17.5cm. Publisher's green pebble grain cloth titled in gilt to spine. vi; 1; 401pp.6pp. ads to rear. Light rubbing to corners slight scuffing and some minor bumping to spine ends with a small spot stain at the very head of the spine small dent to upper edges of the boards; internally clean with some superficial soiling to the page edges ownership of Pennsylvania historian Gertrude Bosler Biddle to front flyleaf. A very good clean and handsome copy. WITH London: 1890-93. Three ALS autograph letters signed on folded stationery sheets as follows: 1. Dated "March 31" without year; from context ca. 1888-1890. 2pp ca. 250 words in black ink; datemarked St. John's Wood March 31. Requesting the publisher's permission to commission a German translation of his Russian Peasantry which first appeared in 1888 with a second edition in 1890. Stepniak proposes 50/50 division of royalties and identifies the translator as Victor Adler who has just been sentenced to three months in prison and thus now has "ample leisure" for undertaking the translation. Adler 1852-1918 was founder and first chairman of the Austrian Socialist Democratic Workers Party in 1888. Signed at close "S. Stepniak." Near Fine. 2. Dated November 6 1890. 1pp ca. 75 words in blue ink. Declines a request from his publisher to undertake a book on the Jewish Question: ".it is impossible for me to write upon any question upon Jews or anything else for I am quite full with preparing a series of American lectures." Signed at close "S. Stepniak." Slight smudging final two lines and left margin not affecting legibility. Very Good. 3. Dated May 15 1893. 2pp ca. 120 words in black ink. Addressed to "Dear Mrs i.e. messieurs Sonnenschein" accepting an invitation to visit but stating he cannot arrive early. Signed at close "S. Stepniak." Light soil; Near FIne. Sergei Stepniak aka Sergius; aka Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinskii 1851-1895 made his revolutionary bones during the Narodnik Rebellion of 1877-78 by openly assassinating Nikolai Mezentsov the head of the Czar's secret police on the streets of St. Petersburg. Kravchinskii committed the act in broad daylight and made no attempt to disavow his guilt living publicly if dangerously for several months before finally escaping to Switzerland. He arrived in London around 1880 and quickly became the center of a lively Russian revolutionary exile scene. He founded the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom in 1891 and wrote a number of well-received books on revolutionary Russia including Underground Russia which had in fact been published in translation prior to his exile The Russian Peasantry 1888; and a fictionalized account of his own exploits The Career of a Nihilist 1889. He was killed somewhat mysteriously we think by an onrushing train in December of 1895 depriving him of any opportunity to witness the fruit of his labors in the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Dying young Stepniak did not leave a great body of manuscript material behind him and relatively few letters with good content have appeared in commerce. Harper and Brothers unknown books

Lorne Bair Rare Books · États-Unis2 500,00 $US≈ 2 233,54 €

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