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Khashtshevatski, M. [Moyshe] : HARTE VOR

Moskva [Moscow]: "Shtrom"-oysgabe, 1924

1st edition of author’s second book. Period boards with original modernist wrappers mounted front and back. 12mo, 62 pages; 22 cm. In Yiddish. Title translates as “Hard Reality.” Beautiful modernist typographical title and author on front cover, signed by artist in the print (illegible). Moyshe Khashtshevatski (1897 - 1943) “was born in Buky, near Uman, Ukraine. He father was a teacher in the local Talmud-Torah. He studied in religious elementary school and in a Talmud-Torah, and in 1916 he graduated from the commercial school in Uman. In the last years of WWI and the first years of the Russian Revolution, he was studying at the Universities of Petrograd and Ekaterinburg. In 1918 (April 6) he debuted in print with a poem, entitled “Friling kumt” (Spring comes), in Di naye tsayt (The new times) in Kiev—using the pen name M. Mishal. In 1921 he moved to Kiev, where he forged a strong bond with the local Yiddish writers (Dobrushin, Hofshteyn, Dis Nister, and others), and from that point he enhanced ever more his reputation as a creator and builder of Soviet Yiddish literature. In the Soviet Yiddish periodicals of Kiev, Kharkov, Minsk, and Moscow, he published poetry and ballads. He also translated from the Russian and Ukrainian classics, as well as from other languages. From 1923 over the course of three years, he contributed intensively to Emes (Truth) in Moscow, and he actively took part in the Soviet community and political life. His first works were in the symbolist vein, although he would later switch to a more realistic depiction of life and address the major issues of the time. He brought new motifs and imagery into Soviet Yiddish poetry. His range of interest was extremely broad. His books include: Dorsht (Thirst), poems (Kiev, 1922), 31 pp.; Harte vor (Hard reality) (Moscow, 1924), 62 pp.;” and 38 other titles. “Shortly after the outbreak of the Nazi-Soviet war in 1941, he was evacuated to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and there he learned of the death at the front of his only son. He proceeded to volunteer for mobilization into the Red Army, despite the fact that he was forty-six years of age. He contributed in the harshest of battles in that period of the fighting and died in battle. ‘Moyshe Khashtshevatski is, it seems to me,’ wrote Shmuel Niger, ‘[was] the most candid among all Yiddish poets in Ukraine. His lyric poetry was born with an old, broken, wrinkled, quietly suffering soul; unabashed, he says that it is old, broken, wrinkled, and suffering in silence. He makes no pretense and no heroic or demagogic poses. It does not shake the earth and demonstrates no valor against the empty, blue skies.’” (Borekh Tshubinski in Yiddish Leksikon, 2017). For more on Khashtshevatski, see M. Litvakov, In umru (Disquiet), vol. 2 (Moscow, 1926), M. Litvakov, In umru (Disquiet), vol. 2 (Moscow, 1926), pp. 189-219; D. Tsharni (Daniel Charney), in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (January 21, 1927); A. R. Tsvayg, in Shtern (Minsk) (December 1930); Y. Daytsh, in Literarishe tribune (Lodz) 10 (1931); Y. Bronshteyn, in Tsaytshrift (Minsk) 5 (1931); Y. Dobrushin, In iberboy, literarish-kritishe artiklen (Under reconstruction, literary-critical articles) (Moscow, 1932), pp. 88-101; N. Oyslender and Y. Dobrushin, in Eynikeyt (Moscow) (October 5, 1944); A. Kushnirov, in Naye prese (Paris) (July 27, 1945); F. Sito, in Eynikeyt (New York) (March 1945); Y. Serebryani, in Eynikeyt (Moscow) (October 11, 1945); N. Mayzil, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (May 1957); Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber in sovetnfarband (Jewish creation and the Yiddish writer in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), see index; A. Finkel, in Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (June 8, 1957); M. Shklyar, in Folks-shtime (November 7, 1957); Shmuel Niger, Yidishe shrayber in sovet-rusland (Yiddish writers in Soviet Russia) (New York, 1958), pp. 56, 61, 411-20; Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 316; Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 189-90.] Interestingly, the book, obviously published in the Soviet Union, is overstamped faintly (in English), “Printed in Poland” on the cover, probably an attempt to get past postal inspectors and to make import into North America easier. 1 of 1100 copies printed. SUBJECT(S): Yiddish poetry. OCLC: 51754692. OCLC lists 8 copies worldwide. Spine label removed, unobtrusive number on spine. Jewish library stamps on blank endpapers, title page and margins of 2 text pages. Number penned in upper margin of blank endpapers as well. Toning to covers and pages. Otherwise Good Condition. Dramatic modernist 1st edition of important Soviet Yiddish writer’s second book. YID-36-6 -LOE-’xcc)., DWB00009

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