THE RUN AWAY SOLDIER AND OTHER TALES OF OLD RUSSIA- RETOLD BY FRUMA GOTTSCHALK (SIGNED)

First Edition. Hardback. 8vo.pp. 161. Children's books. Signed presentation copy "To Elsa Levi, with my highest regard and affection – from her grandchildren Fruma Gottschalk Chicago February 1948." Original publisher's cloth binding in cherry red, lettered blue at spine and featuring a stylised illustration of a soldier on horseback on the upper board. Colourfully illustrated endpapers, full-page colour plates and b/w in-line drawings by Simon Lissim. Part of the Borzoi Books Series. Loosely inserted print inscribed 'Richard with Love Dorothea and Simon Lissim,' with publishers label on reverse. From the site Columbia University Libraries The Melting Pot: Russian Jewish New York SIMON LISSIM, 1900-1981.A painter, designer, illustrator, ceramist, stage designer, and art educator, he is considered a master. His works were exhibited in Europe and America in an almost continuous series of one-man shows. They have been included in the permanent collections of many museums all around the world. Born in Kiev, Ukraine. In the Paris of the 1920s-1930s, he was a notable figure, closely involved with the circle of the Russian theatre world, with Diaghilev, Baliev, Bakst, Benois, and many others. He settled in New York City in 1941, where he launched into another important activity, that of art education. He was appointed in 1942 head of the Art Education Project in the New York Public Library and crowned this aspect of his career by becoming in due course Professor of Art at the City College of the City University of New York. But educational work did not deter him from continuing with his creative work, and indeed some of his finest design work and paintings were executed during these years: gold and silver designs, ceramic designs, and an outstanding series of gouaches. In 1960 Simon Lissim was elected a vice-president of the British Royal Society of Arts. He was the first foreigner ever to be named an officer of the 206-year-old Society. About very good. Slight rubbing and very slight tanning.…