Sapgir, Genrikh [The Tale of the Star Map]. Skazka Zvezdnoi Karty. 

Illustrations by Alisa Poret.

[Moscow], Izdatel’stvo “Detskii mir”, 1963.  
8vo, [48] pp., ill. 

In original pictorial wrappers. 
Near very good condition, lightly rubbed, some soiling to one page. 

Very rare. The only edition of these illustrations. 

This book is a poem about a boy named Vitia who gazes at a star map and dreams of becoming a cosmonaut, probably inspired by the first human spaceflight in 1961.
It was written by Genrikh Sapgir (1928–1999), a poet, translator, and prominent figure in the Soviet Nonconformist Art movement. A member of the postwar underground artistic circle known as the Lianozovo Group, Sapgir is regarded as one of the most innovative poets of the 1960s and 70s. His friend and biographer, David Shrayer-Petrov, called him an 'avant-garde classic', likening his work to that of Khlebnikov, Kharms, and Lewis Carroll. Despite his influence, Sapgir was not permitted to publish original poetry for adults in the USSR until 1989.
The book is illustrated with remarkably sensitive images by Alisa Poret (1902–1984), a prominent Russian avant-garde artist. A student of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin at VKhUTEIN, Poret later joined Pavel Filonov’s school of Analytical Art, where she became one of his leading students. Starting in 1928, she worked with the Detgiz publishing house and collaborated with the avant-gardist and absurdist poet Daniil Kharms. But during the 1930s Poret was forced to temper her distinctive style due to formalism accusations. Many of her early works were tragically lost during the siege of Leningrad. She is also known for creating the character designs for 'Winnie the Pooh and His Friends' in the first Russian edition.

We couldn’t trace any copy of this edition in the USA or European libraries via OCLC.