[A.M. REMIZOV -- NIKOLAI VASIL'EVICH ZARETSKII (1876-1959)]

Details

[A.M. REMIZOV -- NIKOLAI VASIL'EVICH ZARETSKII (1876-1959)]
Manuscript album in Russian, entitled 'Reseia (Russia)', signed 'N. Zaretskii', Berlin, 22 May 1925, 90pp, paper wrappers with collage (some losses), presented to A.M. Remizov, containing a full-page pencil and crayon portrait captioned 'Terentii Mikitich Shcherbakov', three letters, two short stories, a section of sixteen poems, three 'chastushki', with folding page of music dated Berlin 10/8/25, a section entitled 'Govorok' being a list of sayings and phrases, interspersed with 24 coloured pencil drawings, many of which are slightly erotic. In the introduction to the work, Zaretskii explains his reasons for presenting it to Remizov - as a fellow émigré, he hopes the texts he has collated together in the volume will provide a testament to the 'Russianness' of their people.
The volume also includes various additions by Remizov. Obviously taken with his gift, he published the three letters in his works Vzvikhrennaia Rus' and Versty, both published in 1927. He has pasted the published versions by the originals, signed them, and given the precise location of the letters in these works.

Lot Essay

In his Handbook of Russian Literature, Terras describes such works as developments in a 'highly subjective memoir genre which combined a chronicle of post-revolutionary Russia, reminiscences, autobiography, biographical sketches, essays on life and literature, and a fantasy dream world' (p.368).
Zaretskii emigrated in 1919 and settled in Paris in 1920 where he illustrated numerous books and contributed articles and reviews to German periodicals. He moved to Czechoslovakia in 1931 and back to Paris in 1951, but left most of his archives, including autographs by Remizov, to the literary archive in Prague.

More from Autograph Letters and Printed Books,

View All