[El Lissitzky] | Sichas Cholin, Moscow, 1917, disbound

[El Lissitzky] Moses Broderzon

Sichas chulin. Prager legende [Small talk: the legend of Prague]. Moscow: Nashe Iskusstvo [Shamir?], 1917

FIRST EDITION, oblong 4to (235 x 306mm.), 8 leaves only (of 9), limited to 110 copies, lithographed text surrounded by illustrations by Lissitzky, lacking final leaf and orange printed wrapper

The first edition of Lissitzky's illustrated text of this contemporary narrative poem by the Polish writer Moses Broderzon, who was experiencing the new developments in art and literature taking place in Moscow at this time. The Yiddish poem relates to Jewish life in the ghetto of sixteenth-century Prague. It is generally considered to be Lissitzky's first piece of Jewish book design, based around a formal Hebrew script; some copies were rolled up as scrolls.

LITERATURE:

The Russian Avant-Garde Book 155