Prostoe kak mychanie. [Simple like mooing].

£3,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books · No longer available

from the library of avant-garde artist Mikahil Larionov Simple like mooing was Maykovsky's first major collection of poetry to be published and affirmed his position as a central figure in Russian Futurism. The title of the work stems from a line in his tragic play Vladimir Mayakovsky, written, directed and performed by the poet himself in 1914. The protagonist, a poet, stands before the audience and uses the prologue to discuss themes of anti-aestheticism, primitivism and the dawn of a new man. It is the arrival of this new age, he says, which will bring about a simplification of language. He promises that the new collective soul will be revealed in words as 'simple as mooing' and that this shall bring eternal happiness. First edition; 8vo (22 x 15 cm); 116pp., pencil annotations throughout; original printed wrappers, edges a little frayed, a good copy. The Russian Avant-Garde Book, 134.

• Binding: Hardcover

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