Three Years
Title
Three Years
Creator
A. [Anton] Chekhov, book's author
Publisher
Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House
Date
[1965]
Contributor
Megan Lepak researched and wrote the event description in 2018.
Description
For a description of the book, please click on the image of the event label/description or scroll to the bottom of the page for the section entitled "Text" for a transcription of the attached document.
Subject
Literature
Identifier
SPECIAL PG3456 .T78 P7 1965
Language
English, book's contents
English, event description
English, event description
Relation
This book has another record in the "Beautiful Books" Lobby Display Collection.
To see this book on November 15, 2018 in the “Event Photographs” Collection, please go here [Photograph of Books] IMG_0581.
To see this book on November 15, 2018 in the “Event Photographs” Collection, please go here [Photograph of Books] IMG_0581.
Text
Transcription of event description:
THREE YEARS | [ANTON] CHEKHOV | MOSCOW: FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE | [1965]
This English language book was published and printed in Moscow. We can only assume that it was intended for English-speaking diplomats or businessmen living in the Soviet Union. A wrap-around painting on the dust jacket looks as though it is a fraction of a larger work, and unless one folds the jacket out to see the entirety, it has a disjointed appearance. Even when viewed in its entirety, it is too large for the size presented here. Based on the other dust jackets from the Soviet Union in our collection, this too-large picture on too small a format is typical. Three Years is the most visually appealing.
As was typical by this time of the 20th century, hardcover books are boring. This one at least sports a stamped black, white, and blue closed parasol. The author and title are stamped in black on the spine and there are three silhouettes near the beginning of the text. To compensate for the boring hardcovers, publishers put their money into making attractive dust jackets that would draw the person browsing through a bookstore to their book. By the mid-20th century, most people buying books no longer threw the dust jacket away when they arrived home, so plain covers no longer mattered to buyer or publisher. Otherwise, this book is unremarkable, unlike the author who is one of the biggest stars in Russian literature.
Three Years is one of 3,000 volumes donated by Mrs. Marifrances Engelhardt after Hurricane Matthew (2016) flooded her home. About 240 books are in Special Collections. During WWII she served in Spain in the diplomatic corps and married a well-known foreign correspondent, through whom she met Ernest Hemingway and Orson Wells. Sometime after her second marriage she settled in St. Augustine. When shown a book from her collection, despite her advanced years, she remembered who in her family owned it or gave it to her, and whether or not she enjoyed reading it. Mrs. Engelhardt died on April 18, 2017.
THREE YEARS | [ANTON] CHEKHOV | MOSCOW: FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE | [1965]
This English language book was published and printed in Moscow. We can only assume that it was intended for English-speaking diplomats or businessmen living in the Soviet Union. A wrap-around painting on the dust jacket looks as though it is a fraction of a larger work, and unless one folds the jacket out to see the entirety, it has a disjointed appearance. Even when viewed in its entirety, it is too large for the size presented here. Based on the other dust jackets from the Soviet Union in our collection, this too-large picture on too small a format is typical. Three Years is the most visually appealing.
As was typical by this time of the 20th century, hardcover books are boring. This one at least sports a stamped black, white, and blue closed parasol. The author and title are stamped in black on the spine and there are three silhouettes near the beginning of the text. To compensate for the boring hardcovers, publishers put their money into making attractive dust jackets that would draw the person browsing through a bookstore to their book. By the mid-20th century, most people buying books no longer threw the dust jacket away when they arrived home, so plain covers no longer mattered to buyer or publisher. Otherwise, this book is unremarkable, unlike the author who is one of the biggest stars in Russian literature.
Three Years is one of 3,000 volumes donated by Mrs. Marifrances Engelhardt after Hurricane Matthew (2016) flooded her home. About 240 books are in Special Collections. During WWII she served in Spain in the diplomatic corps and married a well-known foreign correspondent, through whom she met Ernest Hemingway and Orson Wells. Sometime after her second marriage she settled in St. Augustine. When shown a book from her collection, despite her advanced years, she remembered who in her family owned it or gave it to her, and whether or not she enjoyed reading it. Mrs. Engelhardt died on April 18, 2017.
Original Format
Book / Unpublished Print Document
Collection
Citation
A. [Anton] Chekhov, book's author, “Three Years,” Beautiful Books in Flagler College's Special Collections, accessed April 29, 2024, https://beautifulbooks.omeka.net/items/show/70.