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[YOUNG PIONEERS] Nas mnogo [i.e. We Are Many]

Ivensen, M.

Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 1932. Item #1215

16 p.: ill. 16х13 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Small tear of spine, otherwise near fine.

First and only edition. Very rare.
First book of poetry by Jewish children’s author Margarita Ivensen (1903 – 1977). The work promoted an idea that one child could do little, but together children were even able to stop the street traffic that seemed to be never-ending.
Laconic manner of this book resembles techniques of A. Deineka, N. Kupreianov, K. Kuznetsov. At the same time, it looks quite common to early Soviet children’s books. Some images were just outlined, while colored patches were used for the rest of them. Horses, trams, automobiles are moving in lines - they are depicted without background and often diagonally across a page. Dynamic, innovative perspectives and angles in contemporary photography were much easier applied to book illustration. In many editions, illustrations dominated the text and occupied as much space as possible.
The children’s book illustrator Andrei Brei (1902-1979) created paintings and graphic works, book designs, lithographs and linocuts. He studied at State Free Art Workshops under P. Konchalovskii and S. Maliutin, at VKHUTEMAS under V. Favorskii, P. Pavlinov and N. Kupreianov. He contributed to editions of publishing houses ‘Molodaia gvardiia’, Detgiz, ‘Detskii mir’ for more than 50 years. Among 200 books designed by him are ‘Whom Shall I Be’ (1936) by V. Mayakovsky, ‘A Little Book about Four Colours’ (1935) by N. Sakonskaya. Since 1938 Brei had been engaged in production of children’s filmstrips being the oldest creator of them in the USSR.

Worldcat shows copies located in Princeton, Chicago and Central Missouri Universities.

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