Sobolevskii drug Pushkina

Sankt Peterburg (St. Petersburg): Parfenon, 1922. Softcover. First edition, 1 of 1000 copies; 9 1/2 x 6 1/4; pp. [1], 4-46, [2]; off-white, glossy wraps, printed in black; wraps with age-toning and small chips along edges and spine; small label of Russian-French publisher and bookseller Jacques Povolozky to front wrap verso; good to very good condition. Book design by Nikolai Tyrsa.Written by Russian historian, bibliographer, and member of St. Petersburg's Academy of Sciences Vladimir Ivanovich Saitov (1849 - 1938), the book, in prose, letters, and articles, followed the life of Sergei Aleksandrovich Sobolevskii (1803 - 1870). A bibliophile, businessman, world traveller, and one of Pushkin's closest friends since childhood, Sobolevskii would help the author prepare for press a number of his major works, among many other favors, including talking his way out of several duels (alas, not out of the last one). The designer of the book's wraps and the logo of the publisher was renowned painter and graphic artist Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887 - 1942). He studied under Leon Bakst and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, was part of Mir Iskusstva, became a professor in his later years and taught painting and drawing, and was a founding member of the Soviet School of Children's Book Illustration.