The volume is a collection of materials devoted to the early period of Roman Jakobson's scholarly career. The focus is on his connections with the literary and artistic avant-garde in Russia in the 1910's. A considerable part of the book is made up of Jakobson's recollections of Majakovskij, Chlebnikov, Malevich and others. The book also contains Jakobson's letters to fellow futurists and to his close friend Elsa Triolet, as well as his own poetry and prose from the period. Most of the documents and photographs have never been published before.

"Bengt Jangfeldt' s edition of Roman Jakobson' s memoirs, poems and letters relating to his part in the Russian avant-garde fills a major gap in the literature on the subject. These previously unpublished materials have a freshness and immediacy that reveal the creative and human side of the young Jakobson in a moving corrective to his' official' portrait as a scholar,"

- Professor Stephen Rudy, New York University