1dlphcoracl
Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksandr Afanasyev, translated by Norbert Guterman. Illustrations by Alexander Alexeieff. Commentary chapter by Roman Jakobson. Pantheon Books, 1945. 661 pages.
Aleksandr Afanasyev was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer who published nearly 600 Russian fairy and folk tales, making him the Russian counterpart of the Brothers Grimm. He became interested in old Russian and Slav traditions and stories in the 1850s. His genius lies in collecting thousands of Russian folk tales from a variety of sources including the Russia Geographical Society of Saint Petersburg, the enormous collection of Vladimir Dal (about 1000 texts), his own collection, and several other private collections, sorting through them and selecting the finest tales, the tales most representative of Russian culture and folk beliefs. However, his work extended far beyond the work done by the Grimm Brothers for German folk tales. As an academician and archivist, Afanasyev documented the sources of many of these tales, the history and tradition of thee tales as they related to Old Russian culture, and their relationship to other European folklore and legends. His cumulative work was published in an edition of nearly six hundred Russian tales between 1855 and 1863.
Alexander Alexeieff (1901-1982) was a multi-faceted artist born in the Russian Empire, emigrating to France in 1921 shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the arrest and execution of his uncle by the Bolsheviks. Initially arriving in the French Riviera after jumping ship, he made his way to Paris where he presented a letter of recommendation to Russian emigré and set designer Sergei Soudeikin, starting his work by designing and painting sets for the Pioteff Theater. Shortly thereafter, he married Russian emigré Alexandra Alexandrovna Grinevskya who was sent to live in Paris as a young child. They both worked professionally at the Pitoeff Theater and Alexeieff also began working as a book illustrator.
In 1931 American Claire Parker, an art student and MIT graduate, came to France to study art and met Alexeieff, arranging a meeting after seeing his artwork in a bookshop window. She moved in with him and his wife forming an uncomfortable ménage-à-trois in which Parker became Alexeieff's lover. Nevertheless, the three continued to work together professionally. Parker would invent and develop a revolutionary film technique known as pinscreen and from 1931 to 1939 Alexeieff's interest would shift to making animation commercials and short films using pinscreen. Because the technique is extraordinarily complex and labor intensive it never gained widespread use or popularity. Briefly described (from Wikipedia): "The pinboard is an upright perforated board of 3 x 4 feet into which a million headless steel pins have been inserted. When the pins are pushed forward and lighted obliquely they create an entirely black surface on the front of the pinboard. When they are pushed back, the white of the board shows through. Pins pushed in between create various shades of grey." The results of pinscreen films are astonishing, giving the film an ethereal, other-worldly look and feel. The technique is described in greater detail along with a rare and marvelous 14-minute pinscreen film from the National Film Board of Canada on the following link, which I strongly recommend visiting:
https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2015/02/12/pinscreen-animation-3-keys/
Additional pinscreen short films can be seen at the link below to the National Film Board of Canada, the world's most complete source of this remarkable technique:
https://www.nfb.ca/playlist/nfb_celebrates_pinscreen_animation/
In 1936, Alexeieff was hired by a German Film group in Berlin to lead an animation studio. When World War II began and Germany invaded and occupied the Netherlands and Belgium, Alexeieff feared that German film producers would ask him to produce propaganda films, which he would have refused to do. Subsequently, the four of them (including his young daughter Svetlana) emigrated to the United States in 1940, where Alexeieff divorced Alexandra Grinevskya and married Claire Parker shortly after arrival. All would return to France in 1946 after the war. From 1952-1964 Alexeieff and Parker produced twenty-one advertising films using 'totalization' technique invented by Alexeieff, formally known as 'Totalization of Illusory Solids.' From Wikipedia: "The process involves filming a moving object at long exposures to capture and trace the path of motion. The resulting image gives the appearance of a solid object, For example, the path of a pendulum filmed with totalization would appear as a solid semicircle. This technique gave the advertisements a unique look." Alexeieff and Parker would continue working on pinscreen filmmaking while Alexeieff simultaneously and increasingly worked as a book illustrator, totaling more than forty books.
The Pantheon Books edition of 'Russian Fairy Tales' (1945) was the first comprehensive collection of Afanasyev's Russian fairy and folk tales to appear in the English language. The book contains 661 pages, including nearly two hundred tales or about one-third of Afanasyev's output. Many of these tales received their first translation into English by Norbert Guterman. The illustrations by Alexander Alexeieff for this edition are a marvel, totaling nearly one hundred illustrations ranging from chapter headers and small illustrations inserted into text pages in black and white to nearly two dozen full page color illustrations. His illustrations reflect a deep understanding of Russian culture and tradition as well as exhibiting his prodigious technical skill and imagination.
Cost: $20.
Surely you have a place on your bookshelves and in your COVID-19 coronavirus-free hearts (and lungs, hopefully) to add a copy of this Affordable Treasure and Pleasure to your library.
Aleksandr Afanasyev was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer who published nearly 600 Russian fairy and folk tales, making him the Russian counterpart of the Brothers Grimm. He became interested in old Russian and Slav traditions and stories in the 1850s. His genius lies in collecting thousands of Russian folk tales from a variety of sources including the Russia Geographical Society of Saint Petersburg, the enormous collection of Vladimir Dal (about 1000 texts), his own collection, and several other private collections, sorting through them and selecting the finest tales, the tales most representative of Russian culture and folk beliefs. However, his work extended far beyond the work done by the Grimm Brothers for German folk tales. As an academician and archivist, Afanasyev documented the sources of many of these tales, the history and tradition of thee tales as they related to Old Russian culture, and their relationship to other European folklore and legends. His cumulative work was published in an edition of nearly six hundred Russian tales between 1855 and 1863.
Alexander Alexeieff (1901-1982) was a multi-faceted artist born in the Russian Empire, emigrating to France in 1921 shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the arrest and execution of his uncle by the Bolsheviks. Initially arriving in the French Riviera after jumping ship, he made his way to Paris where he presented a letter of recommendation to Russian emigré and set designer Sergei Soudeikin, starting his work by designing and painting sets for the Pioteff Theater. Shortly thereafter, he married Russian emigré Alexandra Alexandrovna Grinevskya who was sent to live in Paris as a young child. They both worked professionally at the Pitoeff Theater and Alexeieff also began working as a book illustrator.
In 1931 American Claire Parker, an art student and MIT graduate, came to France to study art and met Alexeieff, arranging a meeting after seeing his artwork in a bookshop window. She moved in with him and his wife forming an uncomfortable ménage-à-trois in which Parker became Alexeieff's lover. Nevertheless, the three continued to work together professionally. Parker would invent and develop a revolutionary film technique known as pinscreen and from 1931 to 1939 Alexeieff's interest would shift to making animation commercials and short films using pinscreen. Because the technique is extraordinarily complex and labor intensive it never gained widespread use or popularity. Briefly described (from Wikipedia): "The pinboard is an upright perforated board of 3 x 4 feet into which a million headless steel pins have been inserted. When the pins are pushed forward and lighted obliquely they create an entirely black surface on the front of the pinboard. When they are pushed back, the white of the board shows through. Pins pushed in between create various shades of grey." The results of pinscreen films are astonishing, giving the film an ethereal, other-worldly look and feel. The technique is described in greater detail along with a rare and marvelous 14-minute pinscreen film from the National Film Board of Canada on the following link, which I strongly recommend visiting:
https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2015/02/12/pinscreen-animation-3-keys/
Additional pinscreen short films can be seen at the link below to the National Film Board of Canada, the world's most complete source of this remarkable technique:
https://www.nfb.ca/playlist/nfb_celebrates_pinscreen_animation/
In 1936, Alexeieff was hired by a German Film group in Berlin to lead an animation studio. When World War II began and Germany invaded and occupied the Netherlands and Belgium, Alexeieff feared that German film producers would ask him to produce propaganda films, which he would have refused to do. Subsequently, the four of them (including his young daughter Svetlana) emigrated to the United States in 1940, where Alexeieff divorced Alexandra Grinevskya and married Claire Parker shortly after arrival. All would return to France in 1946 after the war. From 1952-1964 Alexeieff and Parker produced twenty-one advertising films using 'totalization' technique invented by Alexeieff, formally known as 'Totalization of Illusory Solids.' From Wikipedia: "The process involves filming a moving object at long exposures to capture and trace the path of motion. The resulting image gives the appearance of a solid object, For example, the path of a pendulum filmed with totalization would appear as a solid semicircle. This technique gave the advertisements a unique look." Alexeieff and Parker would continue working on pinscreen filmmaking while Alexeieff simultaneously and increasingly worked as a book illustrator, totaling more than forty books.
The Pantheon Books edition of 'Russian Fairy Tales' (1945) was the first comprehensive collection of Afanasyev's Russian fairy and folk tales to appear in the English language. The book contains 661 pages, including nearly two hundred tales or about one-third of Afanasyev's output. Many of these tales received their first translation into English by Norbert Guterman. The illustrations by Alexander Alexeieff for this edition are a marvel, totaling nearly one hundred illustrations ranging from chapter headers and small illustrations inserted into text pages in black and white to nearly two dozen full page color illustrations. His illustrations reflect a deep understanding of Russian culture and tradition as well as exhibiting his prodigious technical skill and imagination.
Cost: $20.
Surely you have a place on your bookshelves and in your COVID-19 coronavirus-free hearts (and lungs, hopefully) to add a copy of this Affordable Treasure and Pleasure to your library.
2astropi
I truly appreciate the diverse books you share with us! That said, this is definitely one book I have no interest in. I honestly think the B&W illustrations are quite lovely, but the color... holy moly! Not my cup of tea.
3bacchus.
I find the illustrations vibrant and quite interesting, even I get the feeling they might pop out if I wear my 3D glasses.
Thank you for taking the time to prepare and share with us, you made me dedicated follower of your threads.
Thank you for taking the time to prepare and share with us, you made me dedicated follower of your threads.
4kdweber
Looks like a fun book though I prefer Niroot Puttapipat's illustrations for the Folio Society's edition.
5booksforreading
>1 dlphcoracl:
Very beautiful books!
Being always a lover of fairy tales, I would have purchased this edition right away after your post, but I already own the original 3-volume edition in Russian and have read it many times.
Very beautiful books!
Being always a lover of fairy tales, I would have purchased this edition right away after your post, but I already own the original 3-volume edition in Russian and have read it many times.
6charble123
Is this still available? This was one of my favorite items at my colleges library and I’ve been searching hard to try to find the same copy
