[Rarebooks] Auction: Lermontov's A HERO OF OUR TIME, 1st American Edition

[Michael John Thompson]

[ https://www.ebay.ca/itm/134744749369 ]( https://www.ebay.ca/itm/134744749369 )
 
Ending Sunday October 1st, Opening Bid $99.00 Cdn

A HERO OF OUR TIME. Translated From The Russian By J.H. Wisdom & Marr Murray
 
Author: LERMONTOV, M.Y.

Title: A HERO OF OUR TIME. Translated From The Russian By J.H. Wisdom & Marr Murray

Publication: New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1916

Edition: First American Edition
 
Description: Octavo, original purple cloth lettered and ruled in gold. 335 pp. First American Edition, utilizing the UK Sheets of the Hodder and Stoughton Edition, London, 1916; the title leaf is a cancel and the printer's note on page (336) states "Printed by William Brendon and Son, Ltd, Plymouth, England". A good copy only: the spine panel and edges of the front & rear covers are faded, stains to the cloth and page edges, small ink price to upper corner of front free endpaper, previous owner's embossed ownership stamp to lower edge of title leaf and the following page, tiny hole in margins to first seven leaves. Despite condition, this First American Edition appears to be astonishingly rare; with no copy listed for sale anywhere, and while a great many copies are listed as being in Institutional Libraries a close inspection of the actual library holdings shows every copy to be a digital file or a much later edition.
 
¶ A HERO OF OUR TIME is generally considered to be the first Great Russian Novel. Written by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841) in 1839, it was first published in Russian in 1840, and revised in 1841. The first Edition in English was published as "Sketches of Russian life in the Caucasus. By a Russe, many years resident amongst the various mountain tribes", (London: Ingram, Cook and Co.,1853). This translation was originally issued in London under the title "The Heart of a Russian" by Herbert and Daniel, 1912; reissued in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton. These are the UK sheets, likely there was only ever one printing of the book, the 1916 London Edition and the edition on offer here just being reissues of the 1912 UK sheets. While copies of the UK edition are out there this US issue appears to be virtually unobtainable, with no copies listed in the Library of Congress, The Lilly Library, The Harry Ransome Center (Texas), etc.
 
In Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love the plot revolves upon Soviet agent Tatiana Romanova feigning an infatuation with MI6's James Bond and offering to defect to the West provided he'll be sent to pick her up in Istanbul, Turkey. The Soviets elaborate a complex backstory about how she spotted the file about the English spy during her clerical work at SMERSH headquarters and became smitten with him, making her state that his picture made her think of Lermontov's Pechorin. The fact that Pechorin was anything but a 'hero' or even a positive character at all in Lermontov's narration stands to indicate Fleming's wry self-deprecating wit about his most famous creation; the irony is lost, however, on western readers not familiar with Lermontov's work.
 
 
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Michael John Thompson, Antiquarian Bookseller
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Past President of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Canada.
Rare books and associated material bought and sold and appraised.