129 résultats
195100006582New York: New Directions 1951 1951. First edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. 8vo. 6 vii-xiii 144 pp. Pink cloth with black lettering on the spine. Price of $3.00 on front flap of jacket. First issue as per Ahearn APG 011a. Signed by the author on the title page. A Near Fine book with mild rubbing to the edges of the boards and light age toning to the top of the textblock; dust jacket is Very Good with the front fold discreetly split spine panel shows mild fading. New Directions (1951) hardcover books
19112289Moscow: A.A. Gorozhankin and K.A. Fisher 1911-12. <br /><br />Twenty-six postcards each 5 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches 138 x 84 mm featuring black-and-white photos of scenes from Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and text descriptions in Russian. <br /><br />The Cherry Orchard opened at the Moscow Art Theatre on January 17 1904 in a production directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky just six months before the death of Chekhov. In the play a family is forced to sell their estate at auction to pay their debts. The buyer Lopakhin plans to cut down the family's beloved cherry orchard so he can build cottages on the estate. <br /><br />These postcards feature cast members from early productions: Olga Knipper as Madame Ranevskaya the estate owner Maria Lilina as Anya her daughter Margarita Savitskaya as Varya foster daughter Stanislavsky himself as Gaev Ranevskaya's brother Leonid Leonidov as Lopakhin Vladimir Gribunin as Simeonov-Pishchik a landowner Elena Muratova as Charoltta Ivanovna a governess Alexander Artyom as Firs an elderly valet Vasily Kachalov as Trofimov a student and Ivan Moskvin as Yephikhov a bookkeeper. <br /><br />Olga Knipper was the wife of Chekhov Maria Lilina was the wife of Stanislavsky and Ivan Moskvin became director of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1943. All three were among the 39 original members of the troupe when Stanislavsky founded it in 1898 with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. <br /><br />Chekhov conceived The Cherry Orchard as a comedy but Stanislavsky turned it into a tragedy angering Chekhov. "My play opened yesterday so my mood is none too good" Chekhov wrote in a letter to author and dramatist Ivan Leontyev known as Shcheglov quoted in Laurence Senelick Anton Chekhov's Selected Plays. New York: W.W. Norton 2005 page 456. And in late March 1904 writing from Yalta Chekhov declared in a letter to his wife Olga Knipper the star of the play: "One thing I can say: Stanislavsky has butchered the play for me." Senelick page 457. <br /><br />While Chekhov may not have liked the play the public certainly did. Indeed in a note on the verso of one card an anonymous writer says translating: "we have just got back from the Art Theatre where we saw The Cherry Orchard. There are no words to tell how wonderful it was." The note appears on a card showing Stanislavsky and his wife Maria Lilina. <br /><br />A.A. Gorozhankin published two of the cards in 1911. The famous Moscow photographer Karl Fisher issued all the others. Two of them not identified as the Moscow Art Theatre production are dated 1912. <br /><br />A fascinating set of postcards depicting scenes from one of the theatre world's most acclaimed plays. <br /><br />CONDITION: Inscription in ink to the verso of one card stains or soiling to many cards lower corner of one card of Olga Knipper damaged with slight loss of text; old bookseller's stamp to the verso of half a dozen cards; all a bit rubbed or edge-worn. About Good overall. <br /><br /> A.A. Gorozhankin and K.A. Fisher books
19341169Moscow: Izd. Vseros. teatral nogo obshchestva 1934. First Edition. 4to 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 inches / 307 x 220 mm xlvii 11-195 plates 3 199-211 appendix 1 pages in publisher's original brown cloth lacking the rare dust jacket. A celebration of Alexander Tairov's pathbreaking Kamerny Theatre in Moscow featuring set and costume designs as well as scenes from the theatre's first 20 years. Text entirely in Russian Profusely illustrated in both color and black and white the book showcases each production of the Kamerny founded by Alexander Tairov 1885-1950 and his wife the actress Alisa Koonen 1889-1974. Tairov brought many non-Russian productions to the Kamerny including works by Shakespeare Bertolt Brecht Eugene O'Neill George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Tairov's productions were known for their magnificent set and costume designs and he collaborated with some of the most acclaimed avant-garde artists of the day including Alexandra Exter and Natalia Goncharova. Indeed it's possible to see the evolution of 20th-century Russian art through the set and costume designs which reflected Cubist Constructivist Rayonist and even Art Deco influences. It was an exciting time in Soviet theatre; this era featured some of the greatest directors of the 20th century such as Stanislavsky Meyerhold and Vakhtangov. The Kamerny was the scene of one of the most significant plays of the Soviet theatre according to Nick Worrall in his authoritative study "Modernism to Realism on the Soviet Stage" Cambridge University Press 1989. Vsevolod Vishnevsky's Russian civil-war play Optimistic Tragedy opened at the Kamerny on December 18 1933. "It concerns particular historical events associated with the civil war in the Soviet Union but more generally it is an article of faith -- in the triumph of Life over Death of the Collective over the Individual of faith in the necessary tragedy of revolution of the necessary destruction of those who oppose revolution of hostility to the spirit of anarchism and faith in the leadership of the party." Indeed the play which is featured in this book marked an important milestone in the development of "socialist realism." The Soviet government closed the Kamerny Theatre in 1949 and Tairov died a year later. The Kamerny's home at 23 Tverskoy Boulevard is now occupied by the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. A stunning look at the first 20 years of the Kamerny Theatre one of the most innovative theatres at an important moment in Soviet theatre history. SCARCE. <br/><br/>CONDITION: Both boards rubbed small scrape to rear paste down. Tissue guards separating each play page 36 unpublished according to list of illustrations in the appendix plate 41 loose some small closed tears in a few pages plate 175 improperly trimmed not affecting the illustration. Overall Very Good or better. Izd. Vseros. teatral nogo obshchestva hardcover books
194930698London: John Lehmann 1949. First UK edition. Cloth. Very Good/very good. First British edition of Williams' classic. Published two years after the American debut. Very good indeed in green cloth binding with bright spine label. Price intact dustwrapper shows minor wear to edges. Also very good. This copy boldly SIGNED by Williams on the front endpaper and quite scarce thus. John Lehmann unknown books
