In America

Moscow: Foreign Languages Pub. House, 1949. First English language edition, presumed. Small octavo with white spine. 150 pages, 17 cm. Mild rolling to spine. Moderate rubbing to wrappers. Mild chipping to head and foot of spine. Moderate creasing and rubbing to edge of front flap. Mild soiling to wrappers. Tiny bump to top outer corner. Else pages clean and binding tight. Very good(-) despite outer wear. . Paperback.

"Born Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov on March 16, 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia - later renamed in his honor - Maxim Gorky would learn early the harsh lessons of life. He spent his early childhood in Astrakhan where his father worked as a shipping agent, but when the boy was only five years old, his father died, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents. This was not a happy time for the young Gorky as conditions were poor and often violent. At the age of eight, the boy's grandfather forced him to quit school and apprenticed him to several tradesmen including a shoemaker and an icon painter. Fortunately, Gorky also worked as a dishwasher on a Volga steamer where a friendly cook taught him to read, and literature soon became his passion. At the age of twelve, Gorky ran away from home and barely survived, half starving, moving from one small job to the next. He was often beaten by his employers and seldom had enough to eat. The bitterness of these early experiences led him to choose the name Maxim Gorky (which means "the bitter one") as his pseudonym."