Customer Reviews

For the Voice

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Back in 1992, I was in New York to attend the exhibition "The Great Utopia" which was held in Guggenheim. The show was a dreamland for the soviet art of the twenties still not known as it should be. Moved by the great amaze the exhibition made over me, I looked for the editor Jaap Rietmann who had made an almost out-of-print fac-similar version of the historical book Dlia Golossa by Maiakovsky with El Lissitsky's graphic design. I was not successful. Mr Rietmann said me that this was a very expensive book and he discontinued. Years later, I made a contact with the excellent work of Mrs. Patricia Railing, one of the most gifted analysers of the period, in my opinion. She has not only a great inside information about the subject but held the courage to accept the challenge and publish this and others precious titles of the russian avant-garde. Books such as History of 2 squares (also listed here in Amazon), 32 Drawings by Kasimir Malevitch and others, as well as essays in various publications (Leonardo and others). Patricia Railing is one of these people who is so much dedicated to a subject to the point it makes the researcher go beyond any obstacle. The book is simply great, very well edited and - I must warn - hold it! because maybe another chance will not arise.

I paid about 25 pounds (45 us dollars) for this about 10 years ago, and yes, i'm feeling a bit smug, but really 1000 dollars plus for a product of socialism? i never believed all that stuff about americans and irony....

Vladamir Mayakovsky was the greatest of the early 20th-centuary Russian "Futurist" poets. For The Voice was a compilation of his most-quoted poetry, made in collaberation with bookmaker El Lissitzky. The book itself can be considered an art-object. The use of a thumb index so that poems could be found quickly is an ingenious touch. Mayakovsky was a great poet, but the poems included here do not in my opinion fully exhibit his talent. This is because most of them were written as pro-Bolshevik revolutionary propaganda, and meant primarily for agitation of the proletariat, rather then casual reading enjoyment. As a result some of the statements ie. "..We'll break history's horse./By the Left!/Left!/Left!.." seem a little less inspired, and more outdated then Mayakovsky's other work. He was still a genious, though, and this book is well worth the money. This edition consists of three volumes - the facsimilie, the translation, and a collection of very interesting essays and facts about Mayakovsky and Lissitzky (one section of which is a great help in understanding the poems at a deeper level).. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Mayakovsky, Russia, or avante-garde bookmaking/artwork. For anyone else - FIRST look at some of Mayakovsky's other poetry..a lot can be found online...and maybe his other books, then come back to this one. His long poem, "A Cloud in Trousers" is highly recommended. Sad note : Mayakovsky felt so oppressed by the soviet society he wrote propaganda for, so tired of his poetic voice being stifled, and so dissapointed in romance, that he shot himself dead in 1930, aged 36.