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122, (6) ads pages; Contents clean and complete in red buckram binding with gilt lettering at spine; original printed wrappers bound in (at some point reinforced with archival material at edge); LC "Release/Duplicate" stamp on endpaper; Library of Congress bookplate and sticker of "Yudin Collection". OCLC 562131691 Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (1823 1886) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repertoire." His dramas are among the most widely read and frequently performed stage pieces in Russia. This play A Profitable Position was released in 1857 and received high praise by Leo Tolstoy. "This is a colossal thing in terms of depth, power and relevance and this impeccably real character, Yusov," the latter wrote in a letter. The play had nothing to do with the radical ideas propagated by Sovremennik, but by this time, according to Lakshin, Ostrovsky had developed a different approach to his art: "Would it be worthwhile to wage wars against bribe-takers when they are only part of the way of life where the corruption serves for a hidden mechanism? Wouldn't it be more intriguing to try and get under the skin of these people, learn how their special kind of morality works, expose the logic which helps them find excuses for themselves?" Ostrovsky totally rejected didacticism. "For a statement of truth to be effective and make people wiser, it has to be filtered through the soul of the highest quality, the soul of an artist," he argued. A Profitable Position's premiere, scheduled for 20 December 1857, was cancelled at the eleventh hour, as censors labelled it as "an opus poking fun at state officials." On the brighter side, the police surveillance over Ostrovsky has been finally lifted, of which the local police chief informed the author personally, visiting him at his home. In September (seven months after it was banned for the second time) the Family Picture was at last declared eligible for being produced by Imperial Theatres. This book was 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.
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