During the 1920s, avant-garde Russian authors and artists worked with fervent dedication to create a new type of children's literature, drawing on both the aesthetic innovations of the period and contemporary social and political philosophy to inspire and stimulate young minds. This whimsical children's picture book is one of numerous remarkable collaborations between artist and illustrator Vladimir Lebedev and poet, translator and children's writer Samuil Marshak, many of which are now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This volume reproduces the original book in size, shape and layout, with new English translations in place of the Russian and an accompanying text by curator Sarah Suzuki. The dynamic graphic compositions and playful rhyming texts remain as compelling today as they were nearly a century ago.
Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak (Russian: 小邪屑褍懈谢 袦邪褉褕邪泻; 3 November 1887 鈥� 4 June 1964) was a Russian and Soviet writer, translator and children's poet. Among his Russian translations are William Shakespeare's sonnets, poems by William Blake and Robert Burns, and Rudyard Kipling's stories. Maxim Gorky proclaimed Marshak to be "the founder of Russia's (Soviet) children's literature."
So funny how Time works. I picked up this book looking for an odd story line with some profound message that no one could decipher but me 馃槀 turns out it's all of that and more - as a Russian Native I already heard this story, but in Russian! There's a great translation at the end of the book and it took me back to my childhood days when I was 7, listening to stories and wondering why my mum put them on the cassette player, because I have no idea what the story is about!! Well, now I know. 19 years later. And it's still odd and mysterious, but now I'm asking more questions than just "what's it all about?".
Read it, don't read it. Doesn't matter. Just know that it's interesting. And maybe it isn't for children just yet, or is it??!
Honestly, a child might be a tad bored with this book.
However, I find the intersections of history, art, and culture that made this book possible to be absolutely engrossing. The epilogue by MoMA details the avant-garde approach to children's publishing; Modernist artists saw the importance of exposing children to different modes of expression, which is why Marshak decided to try these flat, conspicuously "naive" page layouts. This book was just one more layer of revolution in post-Bolshevik Russia.
Funny little book. It's bigger and, I think, better than the original version published in English as Baggage. The original art is certainly more unique, whereas the art in this version is a bit more typical, but still, Richard Pevear's translation and the general expansion of the art feels like more of a success all around.