''The First Distiller'', subtitled ''How the Imp Earned a Crust'' (), is a play by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

published in 1886, and translated into English by

Aylmer and Louise Maude Aylmer Maude (28 March 1858 – 25 August 1938) and Louise Maude (1855–1939) were English translators of Leo Tolstoy's works, and Aylmer Maude also wrote his friend Tolstoy's biography, ''The Life of Tolstoy''. After living many years in Russi ...

. According to academic Andrew Donskov, ''The First Distiller'' was an anti-alcohol morality play, based on Tolstoy's short story ''

Promoting a Devil ''Promoting a Devil'' (Russian: "Как чертенок краюшку выкупал", also translated as ''The Imp and the Crust'') is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1886. (Tolstoy used the same plot for a play ...

'', that drew upon numerous literary themes already present in Russian literature in the 1860s, such as A. F. Pogossky's 1861 story of the same title. It was first translated into French by the famous Polish translator

Téodor de Wyzewa Téodor de Wyzewa, born as Teodor Wyżewski (12 September 1862 – 15 April 1917), was a writer, critic, and translator of Polish descent, born in Kałusik in the Russian sector of Poland near Kamieniec Podolski (Кам'янець-Подільс ...

in November 1886.

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Russian

Первый винокур, или Как чертенок краюшку выкупал
from rvb.ru

English

''The First Distiller: A Comedy in Six Acts''
from RevoltLib.com

from Marxists.org
''The First Distiller''
from TheAnarchistLibrary.org
''The First Distiller''
from Project Gutenberg

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References

Further reading