LADINSKY ANT. (1896-1961), AUTOGRAPH Chernoe i goluboe: stikhi [Black and Blue: Poems]. Paris: Sovremennye zapiski, 1931.

63, [3] pp.; 19 x 14 cm. In the publisher’s typographic wrapper. Minor rubbing and fading to the wrapper, small tears to the edges and spine, corner of the imprint label on the front wrapper missing, wrapper slightly detached, minor soiling to the text block. Pencil annotations on p. 27. Printing error: the text of the rear wrapper is printed upside down. Author’s presentation inscription on the first free leaf: ‘To Rinaldo Küfferle in the hope of meeting some day in Italy / Ant. Ladinsky 1936 (? illegible) Paris’. Rinaldo Küfferle (1903-1955) was a translator, publisher and critic who actively translated Russian literature (especially Ivan Bunin) and promoted it in Italy. The poet’s first collection, comprising 42 poems, published at Mikhail Osorgin’s expense. Vladimir Nabokov was among the first to review it, in ‘Rul’’ (28 January, no. 3092), noting the originality of Ladinsky’s talent and his independence as a poet. Antonin Petrovich Ladinsky (1896-1961) was a Russian poet of the first wave of emigration, prose writer, translator and author of historical novels about the Roman Empire, Byzantium and Kievan Rus’. The poet’s first book of verse. Bibliography: Turchinsky, p. 290; Okhlopkov, p. 103.