Description

8°. 79 pp. with illustrations and photographs within text, original wrappers with illustrated title, originally bound together with a string (soft folds in corners, wrappers slightly stained, old paper stamp in the corner and a taxation stamp on the back, otherwise in a seemingly unread condition)

An attractive version of a classic Armenian ABC book for children was printed by the Armenian diaspora in Istanbul. The book is accompanied with crude illustrations and photomontages. The motifs are taken from every day life and the nature, but also from the Armenian culture.

The author was an Armenian literary critic and author Hovhannēs Gazanchean (1870-1915), born in Tokat, in Anatolia. He was also an author of spiritual books. Gazanchean was killed in the Armenian Genocide in 1915.

The “Rainbow” by Hovhannēs Gazanchean became a classic of the Armenian ABC book in the Ottoman Empire and later in Turkey and was printed in many versions across the country. All the versions of this ephemeral book seem to be rare today.

Worldcat lists the book with no known examples in libraries.

References: OCLC 976168405