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[UKRAINIAN PRAGUE] Ivasyk-telesyk: Kazka v piaty kartynakh [i.e. Ivasyk-telesyk: Tale in Five Actions]

Oles, O.

Prague: Dzvin, 1925. Item #1429

68 pp.: ill. 23x17,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Foxing, spine lost and partly repaired, front cover with title page detached from block with minor fragments of outer edge lost, stamp of private library on t.p., vertical crease of front cover, otherwise good and clean internally.

An interesting and rare example of Ukrainian emigre publishing culture.
Cover design was created by Ukrainian artist and engraver Ivan Mozalevskii (1890-1975) who developed projects for Ukrainian banknotes from March 1918 to June 1919. Next year he emigrated and actively collaborated with Ukrainian and Russian emigre culture until his return to Soviet Ukraine in 1947. In book design, he frequently used motifs of Ukrainian folk art, national symbols and ornaments.
This book contains a play demonstrating an option of a tale “a boy and a witch”. In all, there are 52 Russian versions of the tale, 23 Ukrainian ones, 13 Belarusian ones. The tale has been repeatedly processed by Russian and Ukrainian writers.
This particular adaptation was written by Ukrainian poet and writer Oleksandr Oles (real name Kandyba; 1878-1944). He debuted in an almanac ‘Koster’ in 1905 and was sponsored to print his first book of poetry under the pseudonym Oleksandr Oles in 1907. He lived in Kharkiv until the October Revolution and the Civil war, then emigrated in 1919, as a cultural attaché of the embassy of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in Hungary. From 1920 he lived in Vienna where he headed the Union of Ukrainian Journalists and edited the magazine ‘Na perelomi’. Then he moved to Prague in 1924. Oles published several poetry collections abroad, the main theme of which is longing for Ukraine.
Black-and-white illustrations were produced by artist and stage designer Konstantin Dydyshko (1876-1932). In 1918 he took part in the festive decoration of Petrograd on the 1st anniversary of the October Revolution. He exhibited works at shows of various art groups; emigrated to Finland in 1921.

Worldcat shows copies located in Yale and Harvard Universities.

Price: $350.00

Status: On Hold