164. GORKY, M[axim], M[stislav] Dobuzhinsky, Evg[enii] Zamyatin, N[ikolai] Radlov, K[ornei]Chukovsky, and V[ladimir] Scherbachev (eds). Dom iskusstv [House of the Arts]. Petersburg, Nos. 1 and 2 bound in one, 1921. 4to (280 x 210 mm). Rebound in gray cloth with the original decorated tan wrappers designed by Dobuzhinsky bound in. Condition: very light spotting to front wrapper of no. 1, and minor chipping to back wrapper of No. 2.
One of 5,000 copies. rare complete run of the important but short-lived art and literary journal. With contributions by Anna Akhmatova, Iurii Annenkov, Aleksandr Blok, Kornei Chukovsky, Nikolai Gumilev, Vladislav Khodasevich, Mikhail Kuzmin, Osip Mandelshtam, Nikolai Radlov, Aleksei Remizov, Evgenyi Zemyatin and others. Decorations by Annenkov, Sergei Chekhonin, Dobuzhinsky, Dmitrii Mitrokhin and others. The criticism includes Blok's commentary on a production of King Lear and Chukovsky's comparison of Akhmatova with Mayakovsky. The second and final issue paid tribute to Blok who had recently died. The editors and contributors were primarily the authors and artists who gathered round Gorky at his World Literature publishing company in Dom isskustv on Nevsky Prospekt in Petersburg. The government opened Dom isskustv to provide struggling artists with a place to sleep and eat as well as a library for their use. Gorky was unhappy with the first issue of the journal ("No spirit") and his name is missing from the second. Disillusioned with the Bolsheviks, he left for Sorrento in October.
est. $2000 – £3000
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