Joseph Knebel

Born to an assimilated family in Buczacz, Habsburg Galicia (today Buchach, Ukraine), Joseph Knebel lived in Vienna for a time before moving to Moscow in 1880, where he became a book dealer, and eventually a prominent publisher of art books, children’s literature, and publications intended to improve art education for children. By the early twentieth century, Knebel (who came to be known by a Russified version of his name, Osip or Iosif Nicholaevich Knebel) had established himself in Moscow’s artistic and scholarly community, befriending many artists and writers, among them Leo Tolstoy. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet government appropriated Knebel’s publishing house. Knebel is most known for his Podarochnaia seriia (Gift Series, 1906–1918), a collection of lavishly illustrated children’s books.