Mana Dzimtene : dzejas (My Homeland : Poetry)

Fine condition; paper darkened at the edges because of the time, otherwise perfect. 

Minimalistic constructivist cover designed by Niklavs Strunke. Book of modernist verse by writer, whose works are characterized by very strong sense of poetic expressionism and leftist political position. Poems of hight artistic quality, innovative, with author's concentration on laconic directness. Book's poetic content acuity and militancy is turned against bourgeoisie. 

The neat characteristic to the current poetry collection is given by E. E. [Ego, Edgars] in Domas, 1933, No. 1, 47 pp. "Kurcijs is not just a passive bystander who in a sentimental closure sinks into  coward lyricism. He is a astute observer and skillful visualiser, whose infallible social instinct leads him to reveal the dangerous social problems and adversity in the ruling bourgeois society without fear of gaining fame as a non-governmental, or rather, anti-state, poet. Already in the very titles of the poems such as "Mother in Prison," "Traitor," "Banker," "Unemployed," "You Don't Kill," etc., is a lot of tendentious, non-poetic, agitating that even the most radical civic aesthetics can neither accept nor allow. The poet realized, that life needs not only to be depicted, but also to be reformed. [..] Kurcijs poetry laced with acute social satire, that can best be labelled as "social epigram". Compared to the flowery language of romantic poems Kurcijs poetic expression seems to be nude and poor, utterly prosaic and dry. However, this economy of language resources remaining within the limits of artistic endeavor, had enabled the poet with a sigle word to give rise in our consciousness deeper feelings than any crowded verse.”

Andrejs Kurcijs (1884-1959) experimental poet and prose writer, literary and art critic, leftist politician. He was a key member of the "Riga Activist", the most remarkable Latvian avant-garde movement of the 1920es. Kurcijs was also one of the most erudite cultural thinkers of the time, proclaimed European avant-garde trends, mainly Expressionism and Activism. 

Niklavs Strunke (1894-1966) Latvian painter, graphic artist, stained-glass and stage designer, essayist on art, prominent book illustrator. In addition to the influences of Constructivism, Cubism, and Russian Modernism, his works attest to his interest in Italian art and Latvian folk art. His works feature refined stylization, decorativeness, preference to everything exotic, ornateness and simplicity of forms, clarity, purity, and primitivism.