Khodasevich V. By way of grain. The third book of poems.

Khodasevich V. By way of grain. The third book of poems.
Second updated edition.

Petrograd. Thought. 1921 Printed 800 copies. 62 p. Owner's hardcover, lass, size 11 x 16 cm. The original cover is saved inside. Good condition, there are pages pasted with paper, owner's notes in the table of contents, a tear in the table of contents on the spine.

Rare third lifetime book of the famous poet. 

Khodasevich intended to release the collection in 1918, but this opportunity was given to him only two years later. As a result, the book was printed in the Moscow publishing house "Creativity" by order of the state Duma, which bought the entire circulation (amounting to 18 thousand copies), but the book was not sold. The second edition of the collection was released a year later by the Petrograd publishing house "Thought" (by this time Khodasevich himself had moved to the former capital) in a much smaller edition of 800 copies, which quickly sold out. Seeing the success of the second edition, the owner of "Creativity" S. Abramov bought 1000 copies of the first edition from the state and put them on sale.

The first and second editions differ from each other: the first included 34 poems created in the period 1914-19 (in 1914 the previous collection of the poet "Happy house" was published), the second — 38 (Khodasevich added several poems written in 1920). The order of poems in the two editions of the collection is also different. Both editions are dedicated to the memory of Samuel Kissin (Muni) - a poet and close friend of Khodasevich, who committed suicide in 1916.

Subsequently, the collection was included in the final poetry book of Khodasevich "Collection of poems" (1927, Paris) as a cycle. At the same time, the poet threw out several poems, replacing them with four new ones, and removed the dedication to Muni.

The collection evoked numerous reviews from the poet's contemporaries-from generally benevolent (B. Vysheslavtsev, A. Polyanin, M. Shaginyan) to reserved and hostile (G. Adamovich).

According to literary critic S. G. Bocharov, "the book is completely composed of poems written during the turning point of Russian and world history. It is recognized by all that this book first opened a great poet, and he himself in the final meeting, in fact, this book opened his own recognized poetic path."