Description
The first edition, first printing of The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigatation, in three volumes, signed by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. This work was translated from the Russian by Thomas P. Whitney and Harry Willetts.
Octavo, [three volumes], xii, 660pp; vi, 712pp; x, 558pp. Black cloth, title stamped in gilt on spines. All with “first edition” stated on copyright page. Light wear to cloth of Volume I, subsequent volumes appear unread. All three volumes in the publisher’s first state dust jackets, retail prices on front flap, dated code in lower corner, light sunning to Volume III, a few short closed tears, all in very good or better condition. Dedication in another hand on the half title of Volume I.
This work is signed in Volume I by the author: “1989 Aleksander Solzhenitsyn.”
The Gulag Archipelago, authored by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, was first published in 1973 in Paris by Éditions du Seuil. This three-volume, non-fiction narrative investigates and exposes the Soviet Union’s forced labor camp system. The manuscript was smuggled out of the Soviet Union due to the repressive political climate. Following its publication in the West, Solzhenitsyn faced severe repercussions, including expulsion from the Soviet Writers’ Union and eventual exile in 1974. The book was translated into multiple languages and published worldwide. Despite being banned in the Soviet Union, it circulated clandestinely in samizdat form.
The complete Russian edition was officially published in 1989 during the glasnost period.
