Rudanskyi Stepan.Chants. Leipzig, [n.d.]

S. Rudanskyi. Spivomovky / with an introduction by B. Lepkyi.

Leipzig: Ukrainska Nakladna, [n.d.]. — 140 p. — (Zahalna Biblioteka; issues 15–16). — On the title page: “Ukrainska Nakladna Kyiv — Berlin, Kurfürstenstrasse 83”; main warehouses in Winnipeg, Lviv (Shevchenko Scientific Society Bookstore) and Detroit. — Printed in Germany.

Later red binding with embossed ornament and gold lettering on the front cover; marbled endpapers; the “Zahalna Biblioteka” series publisher’s cover is pasted inside. Library shelf mark “7. 108” in pencil on the cover and title page. The paper is evenly yellowed, the text block is firm. Condition: good.

INFORMATION

Stepan Rudanskyi (1834–1873) was a doctor from Yalta and author of “Spivomovky,” short humorous rhymed stories based on popular anecdotes that became classics of Ukrainian comic poetry. He was published almost no at all during his lifetime, and collections of his works appeared only after his death.

Yakiv Orenstein’s Ukrainska Nakladna in Leipzig and Berlin published the “Zahalna Biblioteka” mass-market series in the early 1920s—inexpensive but neatly printed books produced in Germany for readers in Galicia and the overseas diaspora. This edition includes an introductory article by Bohdan Lepkyi; a list of previously published issues in the series is printed on the back cover.