Bookvica

[PRINTED IN KYIV IN 1918] A-Cho [i.e. The Chinago]

LONDON, Jack

Item #2902

Translated by Sava Krylach. “Knyhozbirnia” series, vol. 4. Kyiv: Drukarnia Rady Robitnychykh Deputativ for Vydavnytstvo “Knyhozbirnia,” 1918. 32 pp. 17×12.5 cm [6 3/4×4 7/8 in.]. Original publisher’s pictorial wrappers with an anonymous Art Nouveau design of a wheat stalk transforming into book pages. Washed and skillfully restored, wrappers strengthened with Japanese paper; otherwise in good to very good condition. In Ukrainian.

An early Ukrainian Jack London edition, containing two stories: “A-Cho” [The Chinago] (pp. [3]–24) and “Nis dlia korolia” [A Nose for the King] (pp. [25]–32). According to the National Bibliography of Ukraine, 1918 was the first year in which London’s works appeared in Ukrainian translation; this is the first Ukrainian translation of these two stories, although three earlier London volumes had already appeared in the same Knyhozbirnia series.
The selection is striking. The Chinago is an anti-colonial story about the execution of an innocent Chinese worker through the indifference of French colonial bureaucracy in Tahiti, while A Nose for the King concerns a corrupt Korean official who manipulates the legal system for his own advantage. Published together, the stories offered Ukrainian readers two contrasting narratives of power, injustice, and state authority.

Knyhozbirnia was conceived as a series of inexpensive books intended to form the nucleus of personal libraries for workers and peasants. Its 1918 list included translations of Oscar Wilde, Anton Chekhov, and Jack London alongside Ukrainian authors. The present volume was printed at the press of the Council of Workers’ Deputies during the politically unstable year of 1918 in Kyiv; even its typography reflects the transitional moment, with Ukrainian “Kyiv” on the wrapper and the pre- revolutionary Russian form “Kiev” in the imprint.
The translator Sava Krylach, pseudonym of Liudvih Sidletskyi (1878–194?), translated all four Jack London volumes issued by Knyhozbirnia. Born in Irkutsk to a Polish exile involved in the uprisings of the 1860s, he later became a Ukrainian journalist, editor, translator, and political activist, and was among the founders of the early Ukrainian Socialist Party.

Scarce. Not in WorldCat or KVK. The National Bibliography of Ukraine records seven copies in Ukrainian libraries.

Status: On Hold