Yiddish Literature in America 1870–2000

YIDDISH LITERATURE IN AMERICA: 1870-2000Selected, Edited, and with an IntroductionbyEmanuel S. GoldsmithTranslated byBarnett ZumoffwithShane Baker, Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Chava Lapin,and Jeffry MallowBetween 1870 and 2000, the years covered by the present volume, Yiddish literature blossomed from its modest beginnings into a world literature that is the qualitative equal of any of the world's great literatures. Poetry and prose poured out of dozens of great authors in a way rarely seen in previous literary history. Largely unknown to many readers, a large proportion, perhaps the majority, of this Yiddish literature was written in America rather than Europe. A proper, comprehensive anthology of the American Yiddish literature did not exist until Emanuel Goldsmith published, in 1999, his monumental two-volume, 1300-page anthology in the original Yiddish. The current English translation, by Barnett Zumoff, presents about one-fourth of this material so that the reader who does not know Yidd