Livesay, Florence Randal (Trans.); Krot, Pavlo (Intro.)

Songs of Ukraina with Ruthenian Poems SIGNED FIRST EDITION [Ukraine Interest, Presentation Copy]

London and New York: J. M. Dent & Sons LImited and E. P. Dutton & Co., 1916.

First Edition. Hardcover. “…but the singing of the Ukrainian is also a precious pearl in the common treasury of mankind. It was born out of the beauty of the Ukraine, and it is beautiful; it was born on the steppes, and as the steppes it is wide; it was born in battles, and it is free….This is Ukrainian Song.” This 1916 collection of Ukrainian verse and lyric is here introduced by Ukrainian freedom fighter Pavlo Krot and spans the songbook from old pagan songs to wedding cycles, from historical ballads to songs of legendary heroic outlaws, with over 40 folk songs from “The Daughter of the Witch” to “Songs of the Poppy Harvest,” along with verse by prominent Ukrainian poets Taras Shevchenko, Stepan Rudansky, and Yuriy Fedkovych, ending fittingly with the Ukrainian National Anthem. This first edition is inscribed by compiler and translator Florence Randel Livesay to fellow Canadian authoress Valance St. Juste Patriarche, with her bookplate and a newspaper clipping of a poem by Livesay pasted in.

Signed presentation copy, with inked inscription signed by Florence Randal Livesay to front free endpaper, with quotes from The Times and Montaigne, with pencilled name and bookplate of Valance Patriarche to front pastedown. 7 1/2" X 5 1/4". 175pp, plus ad for books on Russian history. Presents nicely in protective archival jacket. Bound in orange cloth over boards, with bouquet stamped in blind to upper board and spine lettered in gilt and decorated with flowers in kind. Mild wear to binding, with faint stain to upper board, small ink stains to rear board, sunning to spine, rubbing to corners, and small neat tears and fraying to head and tail of spine. Front hinge tender. Binding remains sound. Newspaper clipping featuring a poem by Livesay, with inked correction, pasted in to flyleaf, with toning to facing page. Title page printed in red and black. Pages are clean and unmarked. Very good. Item #13006

Price: $225.00