Bookvica

[USSR AT THE 1939 NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR]

Item #1039

Collection of eight brochures from the Soviet Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair [numeration is alternative]:
1) Prokofiev, A. The Palace of Soviets.
2) Papanin, I. The Soviet Wintering Station on the Drifting Ice.
3) Fyodorov, E. Scientific Work of Our Polar Expedition.
4) Komarovsky, A. The Moscow-Volga Canal.
5) Stakhanov, A. The Stakhanov Movement Explained.
6) Khazan, D. Light Industries of the U.S.S.R.
7) Bergelson, D. The Jewish Autonomous Region.
Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1939. 14,5x11 cm. In original illustrated wrappers with various design. Very good.
Each pamphlet got a unique letterpress design, black & white or colored illustration, placed on both covers or the front cover only. As an exception, issue #1 features an embossed composition of the Palace of Soviets on the front cover. Among artists attracted were N. Lobanov (#1), B. Schwartz (#4), H. Klering (#7). All brochures contain black and white full-page photographs and small drawn vignettes.
These brochures were a part of a triumphal image created for the Soviet Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Headed by the Iofan’s statue of worker, the grandiose building itself and dioramas, paintings and models inside showed off achievements of the USSR in industries, agriculture, medicine, education, science, civil construction, sport, etc.
Together with pavilion, the books promoted great expectations of socialist culture. The issues were written by representatives of each field or phenomenon like chief engineers, scientists, writers, officials and explorers. Among the latter ones, for example, were members of the first manned drifting station North Pole-1, Papanin and Fyodorov who explained how they implemented observations in 1937-1938.
Some of these books preserved evidence of their post-fair usage - they were then used as auxiliary English textbooks in Soviet institutes. In 1940-1941 separate brochures with special vocabulary were published and sold together with the books themselves (a stamp with new price appeared on the back cover of each one). Such dictionaries are in issues #5, 6, 7.

Copies of all issues are located in New York, Cornell and Delaware Universities. Also:
#1 in: LoC, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Texas, Alabama, Chicago, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, Kent, Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, Case Western Reserve and Air Universities, Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard College.
#2 in: Yale, Michigan, Texas Tech, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Syracuse Universities, St. Louis Library.
#3 in LoC, Yale, Texas Tech, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, California, Wisconsin, Kent, North Carolina, Duke, Frostburg, Syracuse, Florida Atlantic Universities, Bowdoin College, Cleveland Public Library and Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
#4 in Yale, Michigan, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Chicago, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, Case Western Reserve, North Carolina, Duke, Pennsylvania, Washington, Florida Atlantic Universities, Harvard College.
#5 in LoC, Yale, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, North Carolina, Wisconsin, California, Duke, Kansas, Pittsburg, Duquesne, Case Western Reserve, Wake Forest, Frostburg, West Virginia, Syracuse, UC Berkeley, Southern Oregon Universities, Harvard College, Buffalo & Erie and New York Public Libraries
#6 in Yale, Michigan, Texas Tech, Chicago, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, Duke, Syracuse, Case Western Reserve, Southern Oregon Universities, Harvard College.
#7 in LoC, in Yale, Michigan, Chicago, Ohio, Stanford, Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Duke, Syracuse, Indiana, Wisconsin, Brigham Young, Florida, California, Case Western Reserve, Air, Yeshiva Universities, Yivo Institute, Jewish Theological Seminary, Harvard, Haverford and Hebrew Union Colleges.

Price: $2,200.00