![LERMONTOV, Mikhail Yur’evich (1814-1841). Demon. [Demon.] Berlin: F. Schneider, 1858.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_18441_0070_000(lermontov_mikhail_yurevich_demon_demon_berlin_f_schneider_1858074133).jpg?w=1)
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LERMONTOV, Mikhail Yur’evich (1814-1841). Demon. [Demon.] Berlin: F. Schneider, 1858.
The very rare third Berlin edition, unrecorded in major bibliographies. Banned by the censors, the poem ‘Demon’ was first published in its entirety in Russia only in 1860. The first complete edition was printed in Karlsruhe in 1856, from a holograph manuscript; Smirnov-Sokol’skii only records two other German editions, issued in Berlin in 1856 and 1857. This copy is mentioned in a 1975 article which calls it the second recorded copy. It was purchased in 1955 by N.G. Keiserman in Kharkov, Ukraine, and is the only recorded copy ever to have been offered for sale or still in private hands. Not in Smirnov-Sokol’skii. L. Strokov, ‘Unikal’noe izdanie Demona’, V mire knig 8 (1975), p.93.
Octavo (165 x 102mm). (Thumbing or marginal soiling in a few places, light waterstain to upper margins, some spotting, occasional slight browning, small marginal oil stain on p.15, large ink splash on title, a few smaller elsewhere.) 19th-century Russian quarter calf over paper boards, spine lettered in blind (boards and hinges rubbed). Provenance: unidentified contemporary inscription (title) - N.G. Keiserman (19th-century Cyrillic bookplate on front pastedown) - later unidentified inscription (rear endleaf) – modern bibliographical notes (front pastedown).
The very rare third Berlin edition, unrecorded in major bibliographies. Banned by the censors, the poem ‘Demon’ was first published in its entirety in Russia only in 1860. The first complete edition was printed in Karlsruhe in 1856, from a holograph manuscript; Smirnov-Sokol’skii only records two other German editions, issued in Berlin in 1856 and 1857. This copy is mentioned in a 1975 article which calls it the second recorded copy. It was purchased in 1955 by N.G. Keiserman in Kharkov, Ukraine, and is the only recorded copy ever to have been offered for sale or still in private hands. Not in Smirnov-Sokol’skii. L. Strokov, ‘Unikal’noe izdanie Demona’, V mire knig 8 (1975), p.93.
Octavo (165 x 102mm). (Thumbing or marginal soiling in a few places, light waterstain to upper margins, some spotting, occasional slight browning, small marginal oil stain on p.15, large ink splash on title, a few smaller elsewhere.) 19th-century Russian quarter calf over paper boards, spine lettered in blind (boards and hinges rubbed). Provenance: unidentified contemporary inscription (title) - N.G. Keiserman (19th-century Cyrillic bookplate on front pastedown) - later unidentified inscription (rear endleaf) – modern bibliographical notes (front pastedown).
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