Pasternak (Boris) Il Dottor Živago, first edition, hinges tender, jacket with minor chipping to spine ends and corners, original publishers wraparound band (torn and broken) loosely inserted, Milan, 1957; Doktor Zhivago, first authorised Russian language edition, minor bumping to spine ends, jacket with some very light wear to spine ends and corners, Milan, [1957]; Doctor Zhivago, first English edition, spotting and ink ownership inscriptions to endpapers, jacket price-clipped, spine slightly darkened, minor wear to spine ends and corners, 1958, original cloth or boards, dust-jackets, excellent or near-fine copies, 8vo (3)

⁂ A superb selection of the first editions of Pasternaks masterpiece that chart the troubled story of its publication. Copies of either Milan editions are scarce in the dust-jacket, the true first edition excessively so.

Doctor Zhivago was deemed unfit for publication within the Soviet Union due to certain passages that were perceived as anti-Soviet. However, a young journalist from the Italian Communist Party, Sergio dAngelo, read the manuscript and, with Pasternaks agreement, passed it on to a Milan publisher, communist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Pasternak knew he was taking a significant risk as no Russian author had dealt with a Western publisher since the 1920s, he hoped however that Feltrinellis politics would ensure publication and might even result in publication within his homeland. The Russian authorities tried to block the publication numerous times, even forcing Pasternak to telegram the publisher demanding cessation of the printing (this was then counteracted by Pasternaks sending of secret letters to Feltrinelli telling him to continue). The first English edition was hastily published the following year to capitalise on the attention the book received, it topped the bestseller charts for 26 weeks and remained the only edition available for more than fifty years.