Moi teatralni zhadky, 1881 - 1917 (My Theatrical Reminiscences, 1881 - 1917)

Kharkiv / Kyiv : Derzhavne vidavnytstvo Ukrainy, 1930. First Edition. Very good. First edition, 1 of 5000 copies; 8 3/4 x 6 1/4; pp. [2], 3-120, [4]; pictorial wraps, designed by Boris Kriukov (Kriukow); illustrated with portrait frontis; age-toning to margins of wraps; a small, closed cut and a few creases to fore-edge of front wrap; text block slightly pulling at front hinge; overall in very good condition.Mykola Sadovskyi-Tobilevich (1856 - 1933) was an actor, singer, director, brother of famous playwright Ivan Karpenko-Karyi, and founder of the first resident Ukrainian theater in Kyiv. While living in exile in the 1920s, he organized an emigre theater in Prague and after his return to Ukraine - he performed the lead role in the film Viter z porohiv (in English - The Last Pilot) in 1930. The wraps of the current work were designed by famous painter and universally-recognized as one of the best Ukrainian graphic artists Boris Kriukov, aka Boris Kriukow (1895 - 1967). He illustrated over 500 books during the interwar period, including those of Shevchenko, Franko, Zabila, etc. After emigrating to Buenos Aires in 1948, he worked for various Ukrainian and Argentine publishing houses and executed the stunning apsis mosaic of The Virgin and Child for the Ukrainian Cathedral in the city, which would be his last completed work.