Notes of a Film Director

Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. Near Fine in Very Good dj. [1958]. 1st English-language edition. Hardcover. [slight bumping to upper corners, minor discoloration in gutters and on pp.4/5 (from old bookmark, probably), no other significant wear; jacket shows a bit of wear along top and bottom edges, some surface abrasions along spine, minor paper loss at top of spine, tiny chip at top edge of front panel]. (Arts Library) Series (B&W photographs and drawings) A collection of 20 essays, articles and letters written by the great Russian director and theoretician in the 1930s and 1940s. Part One, "About Myself and My Films," is largely autobiographical; Part Two, "Problems of Film Direction," is primarily concerned with the aesthetics of film; Part Three, "Portraits of Artists," presents Eisenstein's thoughts about the men he worked with and/or admired, among them Maxim Gorky, Sergei Prokofiev and Charlie Chaplin (including a section specifically about Chaplin's film THE GREAT DICTATOR). Illustrated throughout with photographs; a final section presents a sampling of Eisenstein's drawings and sketches. NOTE that this book bears no publication date, and is often mis-dated, probably based on Eisenstein's foreword, which is dated 1946; however, a couple of the pieces are dated as late as 1948 (the year Eisenstein died, in February), so any earlier assigned dates are clearly incorrect. I am taking my 1958 date from the British Library catalogue, although it should be noted that the Library of Congress record states the publication date as "1959?". .