BABI YAR - A document in the form of a novel (First edition - first printing - complete and uncensored)

A. Anatoli (Anatoly Kuznetsov) (Translated from the Russian by David Floyd)

ISBN 10: 022461925X / ISBN 13: 9780224619257

Published by Jonathan Cape, 30 Bedford Square, London WC1, 1970

About this Item

First printing of the first complete and uncensored edition, published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in 1970. Translated by David Floyd. The novel was originally published in a heavily censored form in "Yunost" magazine (Moscow, 1966). ***Very good in brown cloth-covered boards with gilt block titles to the spine. The boards are still beautifully bright, clean and unmarked. No bumps. No creases. Corners sharp. Page block edges foxed. Top edge stained red by the publisher - lightly faded. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally near fine, with no inscriptions. Clean pages without any of the usual foxing. No creases or tears. With illustrated endpapers showing maps of Kiev and surrounding district in Russian and English. ***In a very good printed dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed dual price of 48s / £2.40 net. The dustwrapper is complete, with just minimal rubbing and light creasing at the edges - mainly at the head and tail of the spine and corner tips. No serious creasing. No chips or tears. Spine of dustwrapper very clean and unfaded. Back panel of dustwrapper nice and clean. ***205mm x 140mm. 478 pages. ***'Anatoly Vasilievich Kuznetsov (18 August 1929, Kiev, USSR - 13 June 1979, London) was a Russian-language Soviet writer who described his experiences in German-occupied Kiev during World War II in his internationally acclaimed novel "Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel". The book was originally published in a censored form in 1966 in the Russian language. The book is a documentary novel about the Nazi occupation of Kyiv and the massacres at Babi Yar. The two-day murder of 33,771 Jewish civilians on 29-30 September 1941, in the Kyiv ravine was one of the largest single mass killings of the Holocaust. Kuznetsov began writing a memoir of his wartime life in a notebook when he was 14. Over the years, he continued working on it, adding documents and eyewitness testimonies. The novel was first published in 1966 in what Kuznetsov would later describe as a censored, form in the Soviet monthly literary magazine Yunost, in the original Russian language. The magazine's copy editors cut the book down by a quarter of its original length and introduced additional politically correct material. In 1969, Kuznetsov defected from the USSR to the UK and managed to smuggle 35-mm photographic film containing the unedited manuscript. The book was published in the West in 1970 under a pseudonym, A. Anatoli. In this edition, the edited Soviet version was put in regular type, the content cut by editors in heavier type, and newly added material was placed in brackets.' (Wiki) ****First printing of the first uncensored edition, and first edition in English, in really nice collectable condition. An uncommon book, especially in this condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 9228

Bibliographic Details

• Title: BABI YAR - A document in the form of a novel (First edition - first printing - complete and uncensored)
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 30 Bedford Square, London WC1
• Publication Date: 1970
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022461925X
• ISBN 13: 9780224619257
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Printing: First Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Editions
  • Literature in Translation

About this title

Synopsis

Babi A Document in the Form of a Novel is an internationally acclaimed documentary novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov about the Babi Yar massacre. The two-day murder of 33,771 Jewish civilians on September 29-30, 1941 in the Kiev ravine was one of the largest single mass killings of the Holocaust.

The novel begins as "Everything in this book is true. When I recounted episodes of this story to different people, they all said I had to write the book. The word ‘document’ in the subtitle of this novel means that I have provided only actual facts and documents without the slightest literary conjecture as to how things could or must have happened."

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)