U Rek Vavilonskikh [By the Rivers of Babylon].

A scarce anthology of poems by various authors with the common themes of Jewish life and fate, from the biblical times to the beginning of the 20th century. Cover illustration by El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (1890-1941), a prominent Jewish-Russian avant-garde artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect.

Lev (Leib) Borisovich Yaffe (1876-1948) was a Russian-Jewish poet, translator and newspaper editor. In the years 1917-1919 he was the chief editor of the Moscow-based Jewish publishing house 'Safrut' (translates as 'Literature' from Hebrew). Yaffe translated from original Hebrew to Russian and published the works of Judah Leib Gordon, Isaac Leib Peretz, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Shaul Tchernichovsky and others. Yaffe was also active in the Zionist movement and published many articles on the subject.

First edition, 16mo (23.4 x 18.3 cm), publishers brown cloth with old Russian title to spine, rubbed with a few worming marks, two titles, the first illuminated, previous owner's inscription in Russian to the second title; pages browned with a few worming marks, some professionally restored, text in Russian. 219, [5] pp.

MoMA 161.2001.