Between the Covers

Softcover. First edition. Thin small quarto. [16]pp. Illustrated by Valentina Mikhailovna Khodasevich. Stapled illustrated wrappers. Spine with old paper repair, ink number on front wrap, modest age-toning, a sound very good copy. Chukovsky was a poet, critic, translator, and the founder of Soviet juvenile literature. He was one of the first critics to seriously study Russian children's books; and his articles so impressed Maxim Gorky that he challenged him to write his own book for young people, and the Russian juvenile classic *Krokodil* was the result. Famous for his nonsense poems, he wrote few stories in prose, like this satirical fairy tale about a foolish czar. The illustrator Khodasevich was a celebrated painter and theater designer who studied under Kees Van Dongen and worked with Tatlin before joining the Russian Cubo-Futurists.

Item #396075