Feast during the plague
By: Alexander Pushkin ; translated by Matvei Yankelevich
Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Brooklyn, New York
Language: eng
Translated from: rus
Number of pages: 16
Subjects: Translations into English; Influence; Plague; Poetry; Russian literature
Work titles: Pir vo vremi︠a︡ chumy
Description: "In the late summer of 1830, Alexander Pushkin traveled to Boldino, a town four hundred miles east of Moscow, to settle the business of coming into legal ownership of the family estate which would complete the dowry he needed to marry his betrothed, Natalia Goncharova. However, due to an outbreak of cholera, Pushkin was unable to return to the capital as soon as he had hoped: the roads were blocked by quarantine checkpoints or altogether closed by a cordon sanitaire. During three months of what turned out to be the legendarily productive 'Boldino autumn,' Pushkin wrote the final chapters of Eugene Onegin as well as a number of other works, including The Tales of Belkin, and four short verse plays known collectively as 'The Little Tragedies,' one of which is 'Feast During the Plague.' 'Feast During the Plague' draws on a scene in Scottish writer John Wilson's lengthy drama 'The City of the Plague,' from an 1816 collection of the same title, and was thus itself a translation from English into Russian. This fundraising edition was printed and handbound at the UDP studio in an edition of 250 during the New York City pandemic lockdown months of the spring of 2020. Covers were handset in metal type and printed letterpress; the interior is printed on a digital duplicator. 150 copies, bound in wine-red, were distributed to supporters and subscribers of the press. 100 copies are bound in green covers, of which 50 are offered for sale to raise funds for UDP's Eastern European Poets Series."--Publisher's website, viewed July 15, 2021.
Notes: "This is a Knock-Off book printed and bound by the translator in March and April of 2020 for friiends and supporters of Ugly Duckling Presse"--Colophon.

Limited edition of 250 copies.

Purchase; Ugly Duckling Presse; 2020 July 20; Aloian Book Fund.

"Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era, believed by many to be the greatest Russian poet, as well as the founder of modern Russian Literature."--Publisher's website, viewed July 15, 2021.

"Matvei Yankelevich is a founding member of the Ugly Duckling Presse editorial collective and has curated UDP's Eastern European Poets Series since 2002, and was a co-editor of 6×6 (2000-2017). His most recent book of poetry is Some Worlds for Dr. Vogt (Black Square). Hisco-translation (with Eugene Ostashevsky) of Alexander Vvedensky's An Invitation for Me to Think (NYRB Poets), received a National Translation Award. His translations of Daniil Kharms were collected in Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms (Ardis/Overlook). He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for Humanities. He teaches translation and book arts at Columbia University's School of the Arts."--Publisher's website, viewed July 15, 2021.

As issued, hand-sewn into printed stiff brown paper; in prefab case, 28 cm.