Записки поэта. Повесть / Zapiski poeta. Notes of a Poet
Zapiski poeta is a rare Soviet publication in which literature, Constructivist typography, and photomontage meet with exceptional force. Ilya Selvinsky’s text appears in a small, portable format, yet the visual impact of El Lissitzky’s cover turns the book into an icon of the Russian avant-garde. The celebrated double head, based on a photograph of Hans Arp, and the reference to the Dada periodical 391 place this Moscow-Leningrad edition within an international network of modernist imagery. The copy is materially fragile and heavily used, but it retains the original photomontage wrappers and the folding supplement. The contemporary Russian inscription, dated 12/II/1928 and signed “Мура,” adds an enigmatic trace of early ownership.
Quantity
Selvinsky, Илья Сельвинский / Ilya
Lissitzky, El
Записки поэта. Повесть / Zapiski poeta. Notes of a Poet
1928 | Moscow–Leningrad | Gosizdat
An important Soviet avant-garde book retaining El Lissitzky’s original photomontage cover and the rare folding supplement. Despite heavy signs of use, the copy preserves its core value as a document of Constructivist book art. The contemporary inscription further gives it its own enigmatic biography.
Zapiski poeta is a rare Soviet publication in which literature, Constructivist typography, and photomontage meet with exceptional force. Ilya Selvinsky’s text appears in a small, portable format, yet the visual impact of El Lissitzky’s cover turns the book into an icon of the Russian avant-garde. The celebrated double head, based on a photograph of Hans Arp, and the reference to the Dada periodical 391 place this Moscow-Leningrad edition within an international network of modernist imagery. The copy is materially fragile and heavily used, but it retains the original photomontage wrappers and the folding supplement. The contemporary Russian inscription, dated 12/II/1928 and signed “Мура,” adds an enigmatic trace of early ownership.
€950
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
Copy with original El Lissitzky cover, folding supplement and contemporary Russian manuscript inscription dated 12/II/1928.
Print Run
3000
Inscription
Envoi
Product DETAIL
The book is a prose work by Ilya Selvinsky, generally understood as a novella or narrative prose piece. The title Notes of a Poet suggests a text centered on the poet’s own gaze: observation, memory, self-reflection, and literary positioning enter the narrative structure. Its content does not unfold as a conventional novel, but as a modernist account in which voice, attitude, and consciousness matter more than linear plot. Within Soviet literature of the 1920s, the work aligns with experiments in documentary tone, autobiographical fragments, and new forms of urban and artistic subjectivity.
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