Trudnaia zagadka [i.e. Complicated Riddle]

1930. GURIAN, Olga and Elena FRADKINA. Trudnaia zagadka [Complicated Riddle]. By K.T. Chukovsky. 16 pp. 4to, publisher's illustrated wrappers in a new cloth folding box. [Moscow]: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1930. A Constructivist lithographic book by a well-known children's writer Olga Gurian (1899-1973) who wrote over 50 books about different crafts. The main structure of the book is a dialogue: a mother asks her son a riddle: "What is warm in the winter but cold in the summer?" The son was full of doubt even after discussion with his friends. Then the mother gives him a hint: "It is fed with a thing that firstly is green, then white, then red, then black". The friends offer their versions but have no consensus. Finally, the boy realizes that it is an oven that is fed with firewood. This edition was co-designed by two female artists who were both known for their stage designs. Elena Fradkina (1901-1981) studied in Vkhutemas with A. Lentulov and P. Konchalovskii. She worked in the Kyiv Russian Theater, the Theater of Moscow Soviet of Trade Unions, the Moscow Children's Theater. Sofia Vishnevetskaia (1899-1962) studied at the Kyiv art studio of A. Ekster in 1916-1920. Since 1921, she worked in the Moscow Kamerny Theater. Together, they also designed children's books Golden Leaves (1927), Throughout the Year (1929), Frame-Up (1927).