1051 - Avant-garde - Russia - Chernyj, Sasha (aka Aleksandr Mendelevich Glikberg). Detskij ostrov. (Children’s Island). Color lithographic cover design, as well as numerous additional lithographic illustrations, some full-page, by Boris Grigor'ev. Danzig (actually: Berlin), Slovo Publishing House, 1921. 157 pp., 1 leaf. 32 x 26.5 cm. Original half-linen binding illustrated with color lithographs, with linen-covered corners; spine bearing a gold-embossed publisher’s mark (edges slightly rubbed, scuffed, and bumped; title label on cover stained, rubbed, and browned).

Avant-garde - Russia - Chernyj, Sasha (aka Aleksandr Mendelevich Glikberg). Detskij ostrov. (Children’s Island). Color lithographic cover design, as well as numerous additional lithographic illustrations, some full-page, by Boris Grigor'ev. Danzig (actually: Berlin), Slovo Publishing House, 1921. 157 pp., 1 leaf. 32 x 26.5 cm. Original half-linen binding illustrated with color lithographs, with linen-covered corners; spine bearing a gold-embossed publisher’s mark (edges slightly rubbed, scuffed, and bumped; title label on cover stained, rubbed, and browned). First edition. — Turchinskij, p. 577. — Savin, 18969. — Tamizdat, 92. — The poet’s first publication following his emigration; he had previously been known primarily for his sharp satirical verses. In addition to a few previously published verses, this edition primarily features new poems for children that he wrote in a village near Vilna (Vil’no). These slightly ironic yet at the same time intensely personal poems stand in stark contrast to the fact that, according to Chernyj’s own recollections of his childhood and youth, he came to know “not light and warmth, but only their scars and deep pain.” Here, Chernyj created for himself that “island” beyond war, revolution, and suffering, and Grigor’ev’s drawings complement his lyrical-satirical tone perfectly. It is said that the purported place of publication, Danzig, was intended to avoid tax issues in Berlin. The poet did not receive a single ruble for an unauthorized Soviet publication (1928) of excerpts from the Berlin edition. - The title page shows printing/graphite marks in the lines of the drawing; otherwise, it is uncolored here (it was not uncommon for surviving copies to have been “embellished” by children). - Browned due to the paper, with a dedication from that period (in Cyrillic) in ink on the endpaper. *