Hasenclever, Walter. (1890–1940) [Guminer, Yakov. (1891–1956)]
"Ein besserer Herr" - with cover design by Guminer
Moscow, Leningrad: Teakinopeat [Leningrad Society of Dramatic Writers]. 1929. 16mo. Softcover with mylar wrapping. 80 pp. No indication of edition, presumed first Russian edition. The striking cover featuring a man in a top hat, was designed by Yakov Guminer, important constructivist graphic designer. Wear to edges and spine, overall in fine condition. Uncommon. No copies recorded in Worldcat.Walter Hasenclever was a German Expressionist poet and dramatist whose work was "a protest against bourgeois materialism and the war-making state." (Encyclopedia Britannica) His 1926 play Ein besserer Herr, published in English as A Better Master and in Russian as Дельцы, "что надо" ("Businessman, What Do You Need?"), was Hasenclever's first social satire and proved to be a critical and financial success and he adapted it into a successful silent film in 1928, directed by Gustav Ucicky. When the National Socialists seized power in 1933, his works were banned and burned, so the writer fled to Nice. He was arrested by the Vichy government in 1940 and committed suicide at Camp des Milles to avoid being taken by the Nazis. (19897)
Book Theater