Completing the set : the March 2019 Slavonic items of the month

As I write and you read the 72nd Slavonic item of the month piece, it can seem that some things will never end.  This post, however, looks at the satisfying task of bibliographic closure, with several Slavonic book sets recently completed following the receipt of their final volumes.

Letopisʹ zhizni i tvorchestva N.V. Gogoli︠a︡ (Chronicle of the life and work of N.V. Gogol’) came out over the course of 2017-2018 in 7 volumes.  Detailed life chronicles of major figures have always been quite major business in East European publishing, and this lengthy record is a good addition to our literary collections.  It is also an eye-catching addition, as the photos show; the cover colour of each volume is even reflected internally in the ink.

Another recently completed set is also the chronicle of a literary figure – this time, the poet Sergei Esenin (756:37.c.200.56-60a).  The final volume, v. 5(2), covers the period from 24 December 1925 to mid-1926.  Esenin was found dead on 28 December, a victim of suicide (although theories of murder are still debated).  The volume tracks public and private reactions to the poet’s death.  Appropriately enough for this post, the concluding entry marks the completion of the final volume of the posthumous publication of Esenin’s collected works in June 1926.

A set published from 2013 to 2019 of the works of the late Moscow conceptualist Dmitrii Prigov now stands at 756:38.c.201.1(1-5) although the five books have been catalogued individually (records here).  The final volume, Mysli (Thoughts), contains examples of Prigov’s stikhogrammy – versegrams.  The main message (Ин вино веритас (In vino veritas)) is gradually interrupted by the question А В ПИВЕ ЧТО? (AND WHAT IS IN BEER?).  The stikhogramma is shown below, beside the cover of this final volume.

To end with a non-literary example, the Novaia rossiiskaia entsiklopediia (New Russian encyclopaedia (a general encyclopaedia, not focused solely on Russia)) recently saw its final volume published, to the slight surprise of librarians.  The first volume came out in 2003 and bore the subtitle “in 12 volumes”.  As occasionally happens with such publications, the subtitle’s accuracy wore off with time and it was eventually dropped.  The final volume (v. 19(2)) completes the eventual 36-volume set.  Its expansion was so significant that we ended up having to put it into two different classmark spans.

The final volume is chiefly made up of additions to the preceding volumes.  Some of these are unsurprising (flėshmob (flashmob), for example, is a relatively new term) and Donal’d Dzhon Tramp (pictured) is a recent addition to the world stage.  Others are rather surprising for not having been included before: Prigov’s close friend and fellow conceptualist Lev Rubinshtein, Oscar-winner Dzheremi Airons (Jeremy Irons), the authors Govard Filips Lavkraft (H.P. Lovecraft) and Stephen King.  Most curiously of all, it is only amongst these late additions to the set that the avant-garde movement gets its own entry.

The Slavonic item of the month feature started in April 2013.  The first ever piece marked the 200th anniversary of the death of Field Marshal Kutuzov.  The Newton catalogue link in it no longer works, so here is the iDiscover link.

Mel Bach (aged 300+ items of the month to retirement)