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[ANDRUSIV] Yemigrant (na pozychenu temu) [The Emigrant (a Rephrased Story)]

B(ohdan) Z(aklynskyi)

Item #2611

Lviv: Vydavnytstvo “Svit dytyny”, 1933. 16 pp, ills. 11,5 x 16,5 cm. Publisher’s illustrated wrappers. In Ukrainian. Overall good. Numbers in ink on the title. Pale foxing throughout. Cover art and four full-page realistic black and white illustrations in text by Ukrainian-American prolific artist and illustrator Petro Andrusiv (1906–1981) who illustrated over 30 books, mostly in the 1930s and the 1950s. Andrusiv, a Lviv-region born Ukrainian, studied art in Warsaw, was active in the artistic life of interwar Lviv under Polish administration and after some time in a DP camp, emigrated to the US. In contrast to artists favoring decorative graphics, Andrusiv’s cover is more realistic. The cover art boldly expresses a sense of displacement and loss experienced by a rural individual—the emigrant—in an urban environment. The angular font of the title with its heavy black strokes pushing on the head of the emigrant figure underscores the feelings of unease and adaptation pressures. As we’ll see from the contents, it is the core theme of the book.

Yemigrant is a nostalgic, symbolic short story of elegaic nature, written by a Galician teacher Bohdan Zaklynskyi (1886–1946). Zaklynskyi shared Taranko’s nationalcentric ideals. After serving in the Ukrainian rifleman union, Bohdan joined the Vienna Pan-Ukrainian Cultural Council. In this new position he focused on teaching, cultural enlightenment and folklore history. Zaklynskyi developed educational programs and wrote numerous books for the youth: the present Yemigrant is one example. This somewhat simplistic if not magical transformation following reading some verses (which are extensively cited in the story) aims to instill the love for one’s culture, language, land and people and warn the young reader from a hasty decision to relocate. This sentiment likely stems from Zaklynskyi’s own homesickness, typical for many migrants of any era.

This nation-centered sentiment proved to be a prescient and timely precaution as in just a few years with the outbreak of the Second World War and an ensuing conflict on the Ukrainian soil, millions had to resettle, some seeking solace in heartwarming connection to the native culture, others completely losing it.

Rare. Not in KVK. OCLC finds a single copy at University of Illinois Library, USA. According to the National Bibliography of Ukraine, a copy is present at only one Ukrainian library, Naukova Biblioteka LNU im. Ivana Franka.

Price: $950.00