CHAGALL, MARC. 1887-1985.


KAHANOVICH, PINCHUS ("DER NISTER"). A Mayse mit a hon; Dos tsigele. [A Story About a Rooster [and] The Little Kid]. Petrograd: Vilner farlag fun B.A. Kletzin, 1917. 8vo (159 x 119). 8 letterpress illustrations by Marc Chagall. Original decorated wrappers by Chagall. Some discoloring and soiling, internal water staining along outer edges.CHAGALL'S RARE CHILDREN'S BOOK. The first Yiddish and only children's book to be illustrated by the great modern artist. With the lifting of the Tsarist ban on Yiddish publishing with the 1917 revoluion, Russian avant-garde artists such as Chagall and Mayakovsky produced new works combining their roots in Jewish culture with their modern motifs. The drawings of shtetl life echo the faux naif style of Chagall's work, combining Cubist elements with traditional Jewish iconography. The two tales in verse were composed by Pinchus Kahanovich (1884-1950?), a major Yiddish author, philosopher, translator and critic who wrote under the pseudonym "Der Nister" or "The Hidden One." A Mayse mit a hon is rare at auction. According to American Book Prices Current, only one other copy sold at auction in the past 40 years.