Fewer than one percent of all books written and published in Yiddish have been translated into English. Those that have give us a window into a culture that celebrates the full range of the human condition. This collection of stories, poems and folk songs offers work by Mendel Mykher-Sforim, Yitzhak Leib Peretz and Sholom Aleichem, the three figures who revitalised the language and its literature, as well as works by Shimon An-ski, Isaac Bashevis Singer and others.
Featuring the English-language debut of Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer's Growing Old, the authors included in this volume range from shtetl-dwelling naifs to political activists to poets of heart-stopping genius. Yiddish writers produced one of the world's most varied, accomplished, and enduring bodies of literature, and yet it has been estimated that fewer than one percent of all books written and published in Yiddish have been translated into English. Those that have give us a window into a culture of warmth, humour and tragedy that celebrates the full range of the human condition. This informative, entertaining and often surprising collection of stories poems and folk songs begins with the great awakening of Yiddish literature in the second half of the nineteenth century and concludes with a selection modernist poetry. Featuring photographs as well as thumbnail biographies, this is the perfect introduction to Yiddish history and culture.
Featuring the English-language debut of Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer's Growing Old, the authors included in this volume range from shtetl-dwelling naifs to political activists to poets of heart-stopping genius. Yiddish writers produced one of the world's most varied, accomplished, and enduring bodies of literature, and yet it has been estimated that fewer than one percent of all books written and published in Yiddish have been translated into English. Those that have give us a window into a culture of warmth, humour and tragedy that celebrates the full range of the human condition. This informative, entertaining and often surprising collection of stories poems and folk songs begins with the great awakening of Yiddish literature in the second half of the nineteenth century and concludes with a selection modernist poetry. Featuring photographs as well as thumbnail biographies, this is the perfect introduction to Yiddish history and culture.