Tolstoy. Gorky : Poemy (Tolstoy. Gorky : Poems)

Near Fine condition; cover shows slight color fading to the edges, soft creases across cover corners, spine is strengthened with paper strip from the inner side; internally fine.

The book published in New-York in Burliuk's and his wife own publishing company, known under the name “Izdatelstvo Marii Nikiforovny Burliuk”, contains two longer poems - “Tolstoy” and “Gorky”. The first one entitled “Velikii krotkii bolshevik” (A Great Gentle Bolshevik) commemorats the one-hundredth birthday anniversary of Leo Tolstoy. The Burliuk’s attitude towards Tolstoy underwent dramatic changes over time. If sixteen years before (in 1912) Burliuk with co-authors in the Futurist manifesto "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste" had thrown Tolstoy and other classics overboard  from the “Ship of Modernity”, whereas in the current poem Tolstoy showcases inner closeness to the communist ideas, he emerges as a shepherd caring for the poor and preaching a simple life - "The bolshevik breed [...] A most gentle bolshevik”. The second poem, on the occasion of Maxim Gorky’s sixtieth birthday, praises Gorky’s achievement. Gorky had personal and literary relations with Russian Futurists and with Burliuk, in particular. While being a futurist Burliuk considered Gorky as "one of us", later as important proletarian author, he even said thet became a futurist only after reading Gorky’s works.

Booklet is decorated with two woodcut illustrations by the author. Original pictorial constructivist wrappers and typography designed by unattributed artist, presumably by the author. 

David Burliuk (1882 – 1967), deemed by many as the "Father of Russian Futurism", was a painter, writer, poet, performance artist, journal editor, and publisher. He is considered to be a major figure of the Russian avant-garde. The main heroic activities of the Russian Futurists orchestrated by Burliuk took place in the pre-war and inter-war period. After the Revolution Burliuk moved to the Far East, then to Japan, and eventually settled in the USA.