Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Lidia Popova | First edition of this classic constructivist children’s book

Mayakovsky, Vladimir — Lidia Popova (illustrator)

Kon’-ogon’ [i.e. The Fire Horse]. Moscow: Giz, 1ya Obraztsovaya tipogrfiya, 1928

4to (236 x 198 mm). Color lithographed throughout; the paper with light even toning, a few leaves with soft creasing, pale spotting and soiling. Publisher’s printed wrapper; light wear along edges, mostly along top, faint scuffing and soiling to rear, spine sympathetically restored with a few spots of infill color on the exterior, and archivally reinforced on the interior, a fragile survival in very good, largely original condition.

First edition of this classic early Soviet children’s book—the only edition published during the lifetime of its author, the constructivist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

After formalizing an agreement with the Soviet State Publishing House’s children’s book department on 12 April 1927, Mayakovsky submitted two manuscripts. They were titled "Read it and ride to Paris and China" and " Fire Horse." Later that April, Mayakovsky explained his newfound interest in writing children’s literature during an interview with a Prague newspaper, stating, “I set myself the goal of instilling in children some of the most elementary ideas about society, doing this, of course, in the most careful manner… Here, let's say, a short story about a horse on wheels. At the same time, I take this opportunity to explain to the children how many people had to work to make such a horse. Well, let's say, a carpenter, and a painter, and an upholsterer. In this way, the child becomes familiar with the social nature of work. Or I write a book about travel, from which the child learns not only geography but also that one person, for example, is poor, and another is rich, and so on."

The colorful geometric illustrations depicting a boy and the laborers who make his rocking-horse are by Lidia Popova. They are her best known work.

Rare — Worldcat locates only two copies in the US (UPenn and Princeton)