Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Испания Spain VHP + No Pasaran. 2 Vols. (complete) [PHOTO-DOCUMENTATION SPANISH CIVIL WAR / CONTRIBUTIONS BY HEARTFIELD GOLYAKOWSKY EL LISSITZKY LISSITZKY-KUPPERS]

Ehrenburg, Ilya (Илья Эренбург)

Moscow and Leningrad: IZOGIZ / State Publishing House for Fine Arts, 1937. First edition. Hardcover. Small Folios. 102 [2]; 151 [1]pp. Original gray cloth, volume one embossed in red and volume two with illustrated "No Pasaran" plate laid to cover, both with black lettering on covers and spines. Extensive documentation of the Spanish Civil War by Ilya Ehrenburg. Volume one with photographs of the time leading up to the war in 1936, and the first year of the civil war itself in volume two, with contributions by El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitzky-Kuppers, and Evgeny Golyakhovsky.

Volume I. Frontispiece photograph, not captioned. Volume 2: Frontispiece photograph of Jose Diaz, twofold panorama view of the Int'l Writers' Congress in Barcelona, a photograph of Dolores Ibarruri, and the photomontage No Pasaran by John Heartfield. Title pages printed in red & black. Vol. One was designed by Eugene Golyakhovsky, and Volume Two, by El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitzky-Kuppers.

Profusely illustrated with b/w offset reproductions of photographs documenting the Spanish Civil War. The images are caption in Cyrillic and many of them with additional descriptive text. The publications include several photographs by photographers Eli Lotar, Robert Capa, David Seymore (Chim), and others.

Ehrenburg's tribute to the Spanish people's heroic struggle for independence after a visit to Spain were he took an abundance of photographs documenting the people's struggle against fascism. The book was published by IZOGIZ (State Publishing House for Fine Arts) under the title VHP (Union of Brother Proletarians.

The two volumes contain some 200 photographs taken by Ehrenburg and the Spanish photographers Mayo, Chim and others. The second volume "No Pasaran!" also is a collection of photographic documentation reflecting the heroic everyday existence of steadfast defenders of republican Spain, also taken by Ehrenburg and a group of Spanish photographers. (Karasik/Heiting, The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941, pp. 597-599).

Errata slips bound into both volumes. Text in Russian. Volumes with light wear along edges and lightly rubbed, slightly more so near spines. Volume two slightly starting at inside front cover and endpapers with some sunning and light rubbing. Very good- to very good+ condition. Item #55223

Publishing around one hundred titles Ehrenburg is considered one of the most prolific authors of the Soviet Union. After the 1905 Russian Revolution Ehrenburg got involved in Bolshevik activities and was arrested, at the age of seventeen, by the Tzarist police for a few months, and went into exile in Paris after his release. In Paris he met Lenin, and, spending much time in the artist quarter Montparnass, Picasso, Diego Rivera. He became a war correspondent for a Russian newspaper during WW I. and started to write poetry. After the 1917 Russian Revolution he returned to Russia and, experiencing a turbulent time including anti-Semitic pogroms, became a cultural activist and journalist and wrote avant-garde novels, short stories and "philosophical" poetry. Ehrenburg went to Spain in August of 1936 as a Izvestia correspondence, attended the Second International Writers' Congress in Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid.

Price: $7,500.00