[Banned Books] The Kreutzer Sonata. Translated by Benj. R. Tucker. Thirty-Sixth Thousand; [together with:] Sequel to the Kreutzer Sonata

Boston / New York: Benj. R. Tucker / Thomas Crowell, 1899. Card Covers. Fine-. First American Edition (later printing) of this translation of Tolstoy's fictional account of imagined infidelity followed by brutal murder "that amounts to a tendentious diatribe against sexual passion of any kind." (Literary Encyclopedia) Offered with the sequel [epilogue], published in 1899. Sonata: Foolscap 8vo (168 x 116mm): 143,[1,advertisement for The Rag-Picker by Felix Pyat] pp. Publisher's orange card covers stamped in black. A rare survival of the less common wrappers issue, about Fine, tightly bound and clean throughout. Sequel: First separate American edition. Crown 8vo (188 x 125mm): 155-160pp. Tan stapled card covers printed in black. Absolutely pristine and quite scarce. Line 72. After the Russian censors forbade publication of this novella in 1889, at least three mimeographed versions circulated. The New York Times reported from Russia, "The Kreutzer Sonata is copied and recopied from manuscript by fervent admirers of the great writer and is thus circulating from hand to hand in a clandestine manner." At least five English translations (see Line) were published in America and England in 1890 (no priority established), including this one by radical publisher and anarchist Benjamin R. Tucker (1854-1939). It was Tucker's bestseller, and ran into multiple printings despite being banned from the mails under the Comstock Act for indecency. Theodore Roosevelt wrote Upton Sinclair that he thought the book "could only have been written by a man of diseased moral nature." A play based on the story opened on Broadway, on September 10, 1906, and it has been filmed numerous times, including a 1915 silent picture with Theda Bara. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).