"Baggage" by Samuil Marshak is considered one of the most famous and frequently quoted children's poems.
The heroine of the poem, a thrifty lady, checks in many different items for her long journey, along with a small dog. However, during the trip, the dog suddenly grows up and turns into a "huge, shaggy mongrel." The poet joyfully lists an unchanging inventory of items on every page—"a sofa, a suitcase, a carpetbag, a painting, a basket, a hatbox"—as if the train wheels were rhythmically clattering over the tracks and "carrying" this impressive amount of luggage through the entire book. Moreover, this list is very much like a children's counting rhyme that is instantly memorable.
Following Marshak, these items are depicted in the drawings of the first illustrator of "Baggage," Vladimir Vasilyevich Lebedev.
The creative tandem of Samuil Marshak and Vladimir Lebedev lasted for many years. In this partnership, both participants were equal co-authors. On the book covers, the names of the poet and the artist were always placed side-by-side. "Baggage" with Lebedev's illustrations was republished as a separate book fourteen times, and each time the artist reworked previous versions, gradually moving away from early images, which were close in style to satirical caricatures, toward realistic ones executed in a soft watercolor technique.
Author: Samuil Marshak
Illustrations: Vladimir Lebedev
Pages: 12 (coated paper). Softcover
Dimensions: 280×215×5 mm
Series: Thin masterpieces for the little ones
