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Manger, Itzik : VOLKENS IBERN DAKH: LID UN BALADE

Tshernovits [Chernowicz]; Varshe [Warsaw]; London: Farlag "Alaynenyu”, 1942

1st edition. Original printed paper wrappers, 8vo, 124 pages. In Yiddish. Title translates as, “Clouds over the Roof.” Holocaust-era publication of poetry by the great Itzik Manger, from the “worst period” of his life. Title page verso notes, “Clouds over the roof: songs and ballads” as well as "Copyright by Jacob Gladstone, New York." Isaac (Itzik) Manger (1901-1969) was a leading Yiddish poet, playwright and author. Born in Czernowitz into a Yiddish literary home–Manger’s father, Hillel, whose bohemianism and bouts of depression kept the family on the move, coined the Yiddish phrase literatoyre, a felicitous pairing of “literature” and “Torah”--the young Manger fled to Romania in WWI, where in 1918 he began to write Yiddish poetry.After the war Manger moved “to Bucharest, where he became a leading spokesman for the Yiddish secular movement in Greater Romania, wrote for the local Yiddish press, and did the lecture circuit, speaking on the ballad as well as on Spanish, Romanian, and Gypsy folklore.Manger was 27 when he arrived in Warsaw as a Romanian poet with thick, disheveled flowing hair, blazing eyes, and a lighted cigarette perpetually dangling from his lips. To the Yiddish literary scene of that city, Manger was an exotic newcomer. He would call this period (1928–1938) ‘my most beautiful decade.' It was by far his most productive.Manger granted interviews and published articles in Literarishe bleter; gave readings at the Writers Club, where he recited his poetry from memory; published Shtern afn dakh (Stars on the Roof; 1929), a meticulously edited volume of his verse; put out 12 issues of his own 4-page literary journal called Getseylte verter (Counted Words; 1929–1930) and filled mostly with his own manifestos, poems, and literary musings; invented a new genre, which he called Khumesh-lider (Bible Songs; 1935); rewrote the Purim megilah (Megile-lider; 1936); penned a personalized history of Yiddish literature from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century (Noente geshtaltn [Close Images]; 1938); published three more volumes of verse, Lamtern in vint (Lantern in the Wind; 1933), Velvl Zbarzher shraybt briv tsu malkele der sheyner (Velvl Zbarzher Writes Letters to the Beautiful Malkele; 1937), and Demerung in shpigl (Dusk in the Mirror; 1937). He also compiled Felker zingen (Nations Sing; 1936), an anthology of European folk songs; wrote Di vunderlekhe lebns-bashraybung fun Shmuel-Abe Abervo (Dos bukh fun gan-eydn) (The Amazing Life Story of Shmuel-Abe Abervo [The Book of the Garden of Eden]; 1939), a fictional autobiography in prose; witnessed the production of two plays, loosely based on Avrom Goldfadn’s work: Di kishef-makherin (The Witch) and Dray Hotsmakhs (Three Hotsmakhs); composed lyrics for the Yiddish cabaret and the fledgling Yiddish movie industry; crisscrossed Poland knowing very little Polish; and entered into a common-law marriage with Rokhl Oyerbakh. In January 1930, Manger was one of the four youngest initiates elected to the Yiddish PEN club. The other three were Yisroel Rabon, Iosef Papiernikov, and Isaac Bashevis Singer…. As a Romanian national, Manger was forced to leave Poland in 1938 and headed for Paris, where he eked out a living by giving lectures on French literature to Yiddish-speaking audiences. When northern France fell to the Germans in 1940, Manger headed south to Marseilles, and from there made his tortuous way to England. In London, he was befriended by the bookstore owner Margaret Waterhouse. Although Manger eventually became a British citizen, he would characterize his 10 years in England as the worst period of his life. A collection of poems, Volkns ibern dakh (Clouds over the Roof), appeared in 1942…. In March 1951….He married Genia Nadir, the widow of the poet Moyshe Nadir, and a jubilee committee chaired by the poet Mani Leyb published a beautiful edition of his Lid un balade (Song and Ballad) in 1952…..In 1958, Manger made his first trip to Israel, where he finally settled, found a new mass audience in both Yiddish and Hebrew, and died in that country….On 31 October 1968, the Itsik Manger Prize was established in Israel. His notebooks, manuscripts, and correspondence are housed at the Manger Archive at the National and University Library in Jerusalem” (Roskies in YIVO Encyclopedia). SUBJECT(S): Yiddish poetry. OCLC: 11026090. Wrappers toning, Lacks large corner piece of blank rear wrapper, some toning to paper, otherwise Good Solid condition. (yid-43-12-+)

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