Product Description
Hoffman, M.L., Lifar, Serge. Pushkin's Letters to N.N. Goncharova (Письма Пушкина к Н.Н. Гончаровой). Jubilee Edition (second). 1837-1937. Paris. Publisher Serge Lifar Cooperative Etoile. 1936. Soft publisher's binding. 160 pages. Color frontispiece, illustrations outside the text on chalk paper. The text for this edition was written by Sergei Mikhailovich Lifar (1904-1986), a ballet dancer and student of Diaghilev, and Modest Ludwigovich Hoffmann (1887-1959), a renowned historian and Pushkin scholar. A short time earlier, the first edition of the book was published in a print run of 210 copies which featured a large number of facsimiles of letters. The second, "mass edition," was released in a print run of 1,500 copies and featured two letter facsimiles. This rare émigré publication marked the centenary of Pushkin's death.
The color frontispiece features a miniature portrait of A.S. Pushkin by Tropinin, a gift from the poet to his fiancée and acquired by Serge Lifar in 1932. The final page of the book reproduces the reverse side of this miniature. Publisher's cover based on a drawing by the artist of the Russian avant-garde N.S. Goncharova. The facsimiles of the letters are inserted between the pages and held together by thin silk cords. Pushkin's original letters to his fiancée came into the possession of Serge Lifar after Diaghilev's death. The text opens with Lifar's essay on Pushkin, followed by the letters themselves, their translation from the French in which they were written, done by Hoffmann and accompanied by his detailed commentary. Hoffmann's essay "Pushkin's Bride and Wife" follows, where the author presents unexpected conclusions through interesting evidence, and explores the history of the relationship between Pushkin and Goncharova, raising the question of her guilt in the poet's death.
Signed and dedicated by Lifar::
"Евгению Петровичу Полякову
С Русским Приветом
Серж Ливарь
Париж 1951"
("To Yevgeny Petrovich Polyakov - With Russian greetings - Serge Lifar - Paris 1951").
Eugene Polyakov (1943-1996) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. He joined the School of Bolshoi at a very early age and eventually became a soloist in the Novosibirsk Dance Company. Lifar would have dedicated his book to him around that time. Later in his career, Polyakov became Rudolf Nureyev's chief assistant during Nureyev's time as director of the Paris Opera Ballet, in the 1980s.
Format 23 x 28 cm (8¾" x 11"). Tears and minor losses on the spine, minor tears along the edges of the cover, creases at the corners of the pages, cover separates from block, but is held together by a previous owner's clear tape "repair", block is mostly clean. Note: this item does not qualify for free shipping, and carries a fixed shipping cost of $140.
