(In Russian)
UNCLE REMUS TALES Сказки дядюшки Римус, by Joel Chandler Harris. Translated by M. Gershenzon. Illustrated by A. Frost. Moscow; Central Committee of the Communist Youth Union, 1937 Hardcover (no Dustjacket)
Textured green cloth with embossed decoration and black and faded gilt titling on front and spine, center drawing of a Remus character. Boards show considerable use, edgewear, corners bumped, darkened from handling around the edges. Spine tip and tail are frayed with a small separation at tail. Back has a scrape that left a small dent in spine edge. Endpapers, tanned, have some drawings from the book, no writing. Hinges are loose with some mesh showing but covers are held. Text block is tight, no loose pages. Text is heavily illustrated with line drawings in sizes ranging from full, half, and quarter-page size. Text is printed in large font, pages have no writing but paper is moderately tanned, particularly at the margins.
7" x 9.75" 143 p.
Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris collected animal stories, songs, and oral folklore from Southern black Americans. Many of the stories are didactic, much like those of Aesop's Fables. Uncle Remus is a kindly old freedman who serves as a story-telling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him, like the traditional African griot.