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[NATAN ALTMAN] Lik voiny [i.e. The Face of War]

Ehrenburg, I.

Item #2258

Moscow: Zemlya i fabrika, 1928. 122, [2] pp. 21x15 cm. In original avant-garde wrappers. Spine and outer edge of front cover restored, creases of cover edges, stamp of private library on t.p., otherwise very good.

The second Soviet lifetime edition. One of 10,000 copies. The first prose book by journalist and novelist Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967) written in Kyiv in 1919.
It is based on Ehrenburg’s memories of the First World War: the Franco-German front of 1915–1917, on which two Russian corps fought alongside French and British formations. Living in France in those years, Ehrenburg was a correspondent for the newspapers “Utro Rossii” [Morning of Russia] and “Birzhevye vedomosti” [Birzhevye Vedomosti] and constantly went to the front.
The book was first published by Sofia emigre publishing house in 1920. Then, it was reprinted by Berlin emigre publisher in 1923, Moscow publishing house “Puchina” in 1924. Finally, the work became Volume 8 of the Complete Works by Ilya Ehrenburg published by “Zemlia i Fabrika” in 1928.
Living abroad, Ehrenburg actively collaborated with Russian emigrants, European modernist representatives and later with the Soviet press. Sometimes his travel essays were published in the newspaper “Vecherniaia Moskva” [Evening Moscow]. In 1932, N. Bukharin suggested him to be a permanent Paris correspondent of the newspaper “Izvestia” under the pseudonym “Paul Josselin”, with the exception of correspondence from Spain, which was published under Ehrenburg’s own name. Instead, his name and talent as a publicist were widely used by Soviet propaganda to create an attractive image of the Soviet Union abroad.
Ehrenburg was a promoter of avant-garde art. Among his collaborations are ‘Veshch=Gegenstand=Objekt’ (1922) created together with El Lissitzky and ‘13 Pipes’ (1925) released together with Adolf Strakhov.
This particular cover design was produced by Ukrainian Jewish artist Natan Altman (1889-1970) who tended to Cubism since the pre-revolutionary period. In the USSR, Altman worked fruitfully in the Moscow State Jewish Theater (GOSET) in Moscow, and produced the silent film “Jewish Luck” based on Sholem Aleichem’s work. In early 1928, Altman toured with GOSET to Europe, after which he remained in Paris until 1935. The cover design was most likely produced before this tour. Later Natan Altman came back to the USSR after the Stalinist purges had already begun, so he was forced to apply his talent to book graphics mainly.

Worldcat shows copies located in Yale, Kansas, Indiana, New York Universities, New York and Cleveland Public Libraries.

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