Imagining Lives: Autobiographical Fiction of Yiddish Writers

257 Pages·2005·0.7 MB·English

by  Jan Schwarz

Imagining Lives
Imagining Lives
Autobiographical Fiction
of Yiddish Writers
Jan Schwarz
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f W i s c o n s i n P r e s s
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2005
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schwarz, Jan, 1954–
Imagining lives : autobiographical fiction of Yiddish writers /
Jan Schwarz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-299-20960-1 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. Autobiographical fiction, Yiddish—History and criticism.
2. Yiddish literature—History and criticism. 3. Authors, Yiddish.
I. Title.
PJ5128.S39 2005
839´.13009—dc22 2004025718
This book was published with the generous support of the Koret
Foundation Jewish Studies Publications Program and the Chicago
YIVO Society.
For Rebecca
The individual mystery remains to tantalize the mem-
oirist. Neither in environment nor in heredity can I find
the exact instrument that fashioned me, the anonymous
roller that pressed upon my life a certain intricate water-
mark, whose unique design becomes visible when the
lamp of art is made to shine through life’s foolscap.
Vladimir Nabokov, Speak Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliteration xiii
Introduction 3
Part I. The Classical Trio
1 Setting the Stage 25
2 A Whistle of Defiance 48
Part II. In America
3 The Trials of a Yiddish Writer 79
4 An American Yiddish Poet Visits Poland, 1934 98
Part III. After the Holocaust
5 Of a World That Is No More 127
Conclusion 159
Chronology 167
Glossary 185
Notes 189
Bibliography 221
Index 231
ix