Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) - photo 1
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) - photo 2

Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)

Starting price
£ 700
Auction dateClassic
28.04.2021 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 519415
Lot 124 | Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Rekviem [Requiem], in Russian, samizdat typescript. ‘Munich: 1963’ [Soviet Union: c.1963].
A samizdat carbon typescript of Requiem, 'one of the greatest lyrical sequences in the Russian language' (Feinstein). Begun in 1935 in the wake of the imprisonment of her lover, Nikolay Punin, and her son, Lev Gumilyov, Requiem is ‘a tribute to the ordeal of the victims of the Terror, and the women who waited in the prison lines hoping to get word of them. … In this great cycle, the "you" becomes all Russians imprisoned and tortured by their own government.’ (J. Hemschemeyer, Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, 1992). With much of her work banned, Akhmatova composed Requiem through memorisation and recitation to friends who preserved and transmitted it to the outside world. It was first published in Munich in 1963; its circulation within the Soviet Union was banned and depended on underground samizdat copies. The present copy reproduces the Munich edition, complete with imprint, and has been corrected against it with typos corrected in blue marker. Such samizdat publications are moving witnesses to the resilience and endurance of literature in the face of oppression. Feinstein, Anna of all the Russias (London: 2005), p.171.

8 leaves, (211 x 140mm). Carbon typescript with some emendations in blue marker (lightly browned). Buff card wrapper, two staples (minor creases and faint soiling).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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14.04.2021 – 28.04.2021
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