56 Tseykhnungen fun Ratn-Farband (56 Drawings of the Soviet Union)

Paris: Éditions Le Triangle, 1928. First edition. Softcover. g+ to vg+. Quarto. 56, [3]pp. Tan paper wrappers with red and black lettering on the front cover.

This scarce work is comprised of 56 plates of images of the the Soviet Union, by acclaimed American cartoonist and visual artist William Gropper (1897-1977). All of the full-page images are finely printed lithographically in a brown hue, and depict various aspects of contemporary daily life in the Soviet Union in the artist's evocative, playful and often satirical style. Gropper spent time in the Soviet Union on at least two occasions. The first time, he spend a year there with his (truncated) second wife Sophie Frankle, shortly after their marriage in 1924. During this time he briefly worked on the staff of Pravda. Later, in 1927 Gropper toured the country with writers Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser, during which time he created these images. There is an index of plates at the rear.

The cover, title page and index of plates are in Yiddish. The final printed page of publisher's text is in French.

Wrappers with rubbing and creasing to extremities. Light smudges, stains and scratches to the covers. Spine rubbed, with light chipping to the head and tail. Interior with pages clean and book block tight. Wrappers in good+, interior in very good+ condition overall. Quite scarce. Protected in modern mylar. Yiddish title: 56 צייכנונגען פון ראטן-פארבּאנד
Author: וויליאם גראפּער
Alternate transliteration: 56 Zeichnungen für Raten Varband. (Inventory #: 53468)