Thread Name: "Best Russian Short Stories" Variants

From: j b krygier <jbkrygie@removed>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 17:59:52 -0400

A question on the ML title 18.1 "Best Russian Short Stories" I hope you folks can help me with. Toledano's Guide implies that there are no variations on this title from its initial publication in 1917 thru to 1970.

I was looking through my binding 8 copy (DJ lists 274 titles, so 1941) when I noticed that the book goes to page 261, then the pagination starts over at 1 with Andreyev's "The Seven That Were Hanged" and "The Red Laugh." After this comes a final story, Bunin's "The Gentleman From San Francisco."

I checked my copy of Andreyev's "Seven that were Hanged" (ML 45.1) and sure enough, the exact text and plates of this ML (minus the lengthy intro by Seltzer) has been reproduced in my copy of "Best Russian Short Stories."

I am assuming that there are earlier editions of "Best Russian Short Stories" without the Andreyev stories (nor Bunin's story). This edition would end at page 261 ("The Outrage" by Kuprin). This would be 18.1

Then - maybe - 45.1 Andreyev was discontinued (in 1933) and added to the existing "Best Russian Short Stories" and this would be 18.2 (18.1 + 45.1) (only with Toledano math can you make 18.1 + 45.1 18.2). This would be in both baloon cloth and hard cover editions - but I am just speculating here.

Do any of you folks have an earlier copy of "Best Russian Short Stories" to check this?

When was 45.1 Andreyev added to "Best Russian Short Stories"?

Further, does any one have a later hardcover edition of "Best Russian Short Stories" where the pagination does not start over with Andreyev's story? If the pagination was fixed, I am curious what year that was.

Should there be a 18.2 "Best Russian Short Stories" in Henry's guide?


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From: Scot Kamins <kamins@removed>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 15:25:59 -0700

My Blumenthal with DJ 372 (1955 or so) is paginated continuously through page 556. "The Seven That Were Hanged" starts on page 347, quite a bit further along than yours.

How many stories are in yours? This edition has a total of 22 stories (plus the intro).




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From: BooksetcSF@removed>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 20:25:06 EDT

I was aware of this, but did not have enough information to correct it. It should read something like this 18.1 date should be 1917-1925 18.2 date should be 1925-? Combines 18.1 with 45.1 with pagination unchanged 18.3 date should be ? - 1970 18.2 with pagination running 3 thru 556 Nor do I know if there is a book marked FIRST EDITION when 18.1 and 45.1 are combined.


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From: j b krygier <jbkrygie@removed>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 15:20:26 -0400

Regarding the variants of "Best Russian Short Stories" (18.1 in Toledano's Guide) - it would be great to pin down data on the three variants of this title that seem to exist - particularly the dates of the different versions (these variants are not included in the latest version of Toledano's Guide but I am sure Henry will include them in the next edition!).

This is what we know so far:

BooksetcSF@aol.com wrote:


>I was aware of this, but did not have enough information to correct
>it. It should read something like this
> 18.1 date should be 1917-1925

This is the first variation of "Best Russian Short Stories" (BRSS) with 19 stories and 261 pages. Last story is "The Outrage" by Kuprin. Intro by Seltzer.

In 1925 Andreyev's "Seven that were Hanged" (with the short story "The Red Laugh") (ML 45.1) was discontinued.


>18.2 date should be 1925-? Combines 18.1 with 45.1 with pagination
> unchanged

This is the second variant of BRSS - goes to p. 261 then starts over at p. 1 ("The Seven that were Hanged" followed by "The Red Laugh" and Bunin's "Gentleman from SF") and runs thru to p. 231. 22 stories in all (same intro by Seltzer)

Was Andreyev's "Seven that were Hanged" (ML 45.1) added to "Best Russian Short Stories" in 1925?

Does any one have a copy of "Best Russian Short Stories" from this era w/ or w/o the additional 3 stories?

Is there a "First Modern Library Ed" of "Best Russian Short Stores" when Andreyev was added?

Help!

Again - I have a binding 8 copy (DJ lists 274 titles - 1941) that follows this pagination - but I am assuming the expanded BRSS came much earlier. I am curious how long the binding 8 with this pagination lasted...


> 18.3 date should be ? - 1970 18.2 with pagination running 3 thru 556

All the pages are reset in this edition with consistent type and pagination. Scot Kamins has a DJ w/372 titles (1955) so the revision took place sometime between 1941 and 1955.

Anyone have a copy of BRSS from between these two dates?

Help again!

Thanks for any data you can supply on this ML title!


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From: "Gordon Neavill" <aa3401@removed>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 16:15:02 -0400

Here's a summary of the information I have in my ML bibliography:

Best Russian Short Stories (261 p.) was published in July 1917 and went through what I call five "families" of printings: (1) first printing ; (2) preliminaries reordered with table of contents placed before introduction, (3) B&L imprint without "Inc."; (4) tp with monk device, (5) ML, Inc. tp.

In January 1932 Cerf told booksellers that new plates for Andreyev's Seven That Were Hanged had been ordered. I assume this was when Bunin's Gentleman from San Francisco was added, but I've never seen a separate printing of the book that includes the Bunin story. Seven That Were Hanged was dropped as a separate ML volume in 1933. The fall 1934 printing of Best Russian Short Stories expanded the volume, adding Andreyev's Seven That Were Hanged, including The Red Laugh and the newly added Bunin story. This made the pagination 261, 231. There was no 1st statement to indicate the addition. These plates were used through the early 1940s. The ML combined several titles in the early 1930s to make them more appealing to prospective buyers during the Depression. There's at least one printing with the 261, 231 pagination in a Blumenthal binding (my copy has a fall 1942 list and dj).

The book was entirely reset by 1945. Here there's a single sequence of pagination: 556 p. I don't know for sure that the new typesetting was done in 1945; the ML reset several out-of-stock titles during the war with the intention of using the new plates after the war when paper rationing ceased. The first printing that I've seen from the new plates has a fall 1945 dj.

The 556 p. version remained in print until 1971/72. There's at least one printing from around 1969/70 in the larger format with the Fujita torchbearer on the tp.

Hope this helps!


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From: Scot Kamins <kamins@removed>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 14:25:38 -0700

In a recent e-mail, aa3401@wayne.edu said (in part):


>(3) B&L imprint without "Inc."; (4) tp with monk device, (5) ML, Inc. tp.

What is "tp"?


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From: "Gordon Neavill" <aa3401@removed>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 18:42:48 -0400

title page


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From: BooksetcSF@removed>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 20:41:58 EDT

As I understand it, Best Russian Short stories should be: 1. 18.1 1917-1934 as in ML Guide except for date 2. 18.2 1934-1945 18.1 + 45.1 + 2 stories 3. 18.3 1945-1970 18.2 with pagination 3 to 556


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