About this Item
Ancient History of the East; xvi, 423 pages; Contents clean and secure in red buckram binding with gilt lettering at spine. Original gray printed wrappers. First blank bears LC "Surplus - Release" stamp. With two bookplates mounted to the front paste-down endpaper: "Biblioteka G. V. Yudina" and a Library of Congress bookplate identifying this volume as once part of the massive Yudin Collection, amassed by Gennadii Vasil'evich Yudin in Tarakanovo (Eastern Siberia). Yudin offered to sell his collection to the Library of Congress in 1903. In the winter of 1906, his 80,000 volume library was packed and shipped to Washington DC. Alexis Babine, a Russian born American-trained librarian, who negociated on behalf of the LC and oversaw the packing and shipping had previously written a survey of Yudin's collection. "This collection is so remarkable, both for its size and its quality, and is so little known even in Russia, that a professional librarian who had occasion to spend a few days among its treasures feels justified in briefly introducing it to the literary and the library world." A subsequent LC publication offers a few details about Yudin himself. "Yudin's passion for book collecting began in childhood, as did his amassing of the funds to spend on books. (In his youth he twice won the lottery.) Yudin was guided too by scholars like Vengerov and other bibliophiles of his day. Tuneeff wrote, "This contact with the most educated and famous men of his time helped to develop his own judgment when selecting books, especially where new editions were concerned. Consequently, his collection includes many copies of books which, at the time of their issue, did not attract public attention and were soon out of print." The Yudin bookplate with text in Russian was approved by the collector and incorporates a portrait of Yudin and drawings of his library building in Tarakanovo and of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. AUTHOR: Moshe Leib ben Ya'akov Chashkes (1848-1906), also known by the pen names Moshe ben Ya'akov Danzig and Chashke di Vilnerke, was a poet, satirist, dramatist, and translator. Moshe Leib Chashkes was born in Vilna or Bichov in Byelorussia. Chashkes studied law in the United States and lived in Moscow, Riga, and Warsaw before settling in St. Petersburg. He published both in Russian and in Hebrew. THE AUTHOR: Zenaide Alexeievna Ragozin (1834 - 1924) was a Russian-American author. She was educated in Russia. She had no regular education, but studied by herself. After traveling widely for several years in Europe, in 1874 she emigrated to the United States. She was a member of the American Oriental Society, of the Societe Ethnologique and Athénée Oriental of Paris, and the Victoria Institute, London. She also wrote numerous articles for Russian and American magazines. This was her first book published.
Seller Inventory # 45471
Contact seller
Report this item
