Burnside Rare Books

Mactep N Maptapnta (The Master and Margarita) [in] Moskva Magazine

Bulgakov, Mikhail; Konstantin Simonov [Preface]; Abram Vulis [Afterword]

Moscow: Soyuz pisateley, 1966, 1967.

First edition. The first appearance of Bulgakov's oft-banned masterpiece, serialized in two issues of the conservative Soviet journal Moskva. 6-[130], [56]-144 pp. Two volumes bound together in contemporary cloth, lacking the original printed wraps, titles, and contents besides the novel; half-titles glued onto blank endpapers, obscuring rectos. Very Good, light staining to cloth and wear at edges, faint perfume scent and a few stains to contents; edges hastily trimmed, not affecting text.

A samizdat-style copy of the (eventual) Russian literary sensation. It was only published due to the efforts of scholar Abram Vulis, who published a monograph arguing that Bulgakov was a quintessentially Soviet writer. Still, nearly 14,000 words were censored from the original manuscript, and whole scenes deleted or altered. Whoever bound this particular copy felt the need to conceal their reading habits from the state and perhaps even their own neighbors, despite the relative laxity during Khrushchev's Thaw. Item #140948699

Price: $7,500