Babel, Isaac [Sunset: A play]. Zakat: P'esa. 

Series “Novosti russkoi literatury”. 

Moskva, Krug, 1926. 
12mo, 98 pp. 

In original pictorial hardcover.
Near good condition, overall wear, corners bumped.

First book edition. One of 5 000 copies printed.

Isaac Babel (1894-1940) was a renowned Russian-language short story writer, and his works were translated into numerous languages. One of his most notable works was the short story collection 'The Odessa Tales', which served as the basis for the play 'Sunset'.
'Sunset' made its debut at the Baku Worker's Theatre in 1927 and later had successful runs, including at the Moscow Art Theatre.
Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein regarded the play's dramatic composition as the most suitable for the post-1917 era. Poet Boris Pasternak recommended that his father read it, noting, 'Almost for the first time in my life, I found that Jewry, as an ethnic fact, was a phenomenon of positive, unproblematic importance and power' (from a letter to his father in 1928).
Babel was arrested in 1939 and, under duress, confessed to being a spy. He was subsequently executed in January 1940.

Wolfgang Kasack, p. 33.