In harness

by G. Ėstraĭkh

"Here is a detailed glimpse into the lives and times of Yiddish writers enthralled with Communism at the turn of the century through the mid-1930s. Centering mainly on the Soviet Jewish literati but with an eye to their American counterparts, the book follows their paths from avant-garde beginnings in Kiev after the 1905 revolution to their peak in the mid-1930s. Notables such as David Bergelson - who helmed the short-lived Yiddish periodical called In Harness - and Der Nister and David Hofshtein come to life as do Leyb Kvitko, Peretz Markish, Itsik Fefer, Moshe Litvakov, Yekhezkel Dobrushin, and Nokhum Oislender." "Gennady Estraikh assesses significant pre-Holocaust twentieth-century Communist Jewish writers in teh Soviet Union and America. He charts the course of their artistic and political flowering and decline and considers the effects of geography - provincial vs. urban - and party politics upon literary development and aesthetics." "No other book concentrates on this aspect of t