#RA31
1950-1954
Vol. 1, 1950: XV, 416 pp., 2 ills.
Vol. 2, 1950: 820 pp., 6 ills.
Vol. 3 Pt. 1, 1951: 558, [1] pp.
Vol. 3 Pt. 2, 1952: 468 pp., 12 ills.
Vol. 4, 1953: 594, [1] pp., 1 ills.
Vol. 5, 1954: 464 pp., 21 ills.
22,5x15,5 cm.
In original cloth bindings with colored lettering on front covers and spines, with embossed portrait of Miklouho-Maclay.
This five-volume but six-book edition became the most complete collection of works by explorer Nikolay Miklouho-Maclay (1846-1888) by the 1950s.
The first volume contains Miklouho-Maclay’s biography, diaries, travel notes and reports of 1870-1872. It covers expeditions to South America, Polynesia, his first visit to New Guinea (with reports from Vityaz steam corvette). Volume 2 publishes his diaries, travel notes, essays and reports of 1873-1887. During this period, he visited New Guinea several times, traveled through Melanesia and Micronesia, Malacca, etc.
The following parts of his diaries were published for the first time: 1) “Rio de Janeiro. Punta Arenas” (February 6 - April 10, 1871), 2) “Journey from Buitenzorg to Ambon” (December 15, 1873 - January 21, 1874), 3) “Return from Papua Koviai [Kaimana] to Ambon” (April 26 - May 31, 1874), 4) “Siam” ( February 17 - 26, 1875), 5) “A few additions about the second stay on the Maclay Coast in New Guinea in 1876-1877”, 6) an unfinished excerpt “Ninigo Islands” (June 13-17, 1876). All the texts were verified and about 200 records of the first two volumes were corrected.
Both books of Volume 3 include articles he published in Russian and foreign periodicals. Articles on anthropology and ethnography are printed in Part 1 and articles on zoology, geography and meteorology are collected in Part 2. Most articles on zoology and some ethnographic articles were published in Russian for the first time.
The 4th volume contains Miklouho-Maclay’s correspondence of 313 letters, most of which had never been printed earlier. Some of the letters were added to other volumes of this particular edition. Miklouho-Maclay’s letters in foreign languages were translated into Russian with commentary. The fifth volume collects his drawings and shows his acquisitions from different locations.
The complete works were edited by ethnographer Sergei Tokarev (contemporary head of the Sector of the Peoples of America, Australia and Oceania in N. Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology), ethnographer Sergei Tolstov, geographer Lev Berg, et al.