Komediia o Tsare Maksimiliane i nepokorem syne ego Adolfe.: (A Comedy About Tsar Maximilian and His Rebellious Son Adolf)

Quarto (27x18.5 cm.), original wrappers, 96pp. Vladimir Vasil'evich Bakrylov (1892-1922) was a writer and journalist appointed by Lunacharsky to the Ministry of Public Education and later to the Commissar of state theaters in Petrograd to "liquidate sabatoge" among the actors. He became fascinated by Russian theater history, and in particular an old comedy about the pagan monarch who tries to get the boy to denounce Christianity. It dated back over 300 years and was well known to Russian peasants, soldiers, and factory workers. Bakrylov created his own version, drawing on over nineteen variants of the famous folk play. The present work was Nikolai Tyrsa's first book commission and is a wonderful literary abstract design on both front and rear covers. Tyrsa (1887-1942) was a student of Leon Bakst; he went on to become one of the USSR's greatest children's book illustrators. OCLC locates seven holdings in North America. A near fine copy