Chaliastre [= The Gang] by Peretz Markish with the Author's Dedication, Illustrations by Marc Chagall

Chaliastre [= The Gang] by Peretz Markish with the Author's Dedication, Illustrations by Marc Chagall

Chaliastre [= The Gang] almanac, Yiddish literary journal edited by writer and poet Peretz Markish - one of the greatest Jewish poets of his time. Published by Chaliastre, Warsaw, 1922.

This is the first issue of the literary almanac Chaliastre. The almanac includes poems, plays and stories by the leading poets, playwrights and writers of the period. Among them:

Peretz Markish [1895-1952], one of the greatest Jewish poets of his time. He wrote two novels (Echad al Echad and Dor Holech VeDor Bah), plays (HaAdamah and Mishpachat Ovadyah) and hundreds of poems. His poems were translated into Russian by Anna Akhmatova. He was arrested in January 1949 together with other Yiddish writers, poets and theater members. His family was exiled for ten years, in accordance with the clause of the law relating to "the family members of the person who betrayed his homeland." The important poem Ben HaArba'im (The Forty-Year-Old] was taken from his house in Moscow by his friends and hidden away. Later it was published and translated into many languages. Peretz Markish was executed together with other victims of the government in the USSR. His name was only cleared after governmental changes in 1956, and his poems were then reprinted, both in Yiddish and in their Russian translation.

Uri Tzvi Greenberg, an Israeli poet, one of the most acclaimed Expressionist poets of Hebrew poetry of all time. Recipient of the Israel Prize for Literature.

Melech Ravitch, pen name of poet and writer Zecharyah Chonah Bergner.

Moshe Broderzon, poet, playwright and director of the Yiddish theater in Poland before World War II and later in the USSR. In his later years, he was imprisoned at a camp in Siberia, from which he was released about a year before his passing. And many more.

In addition, the almanac contains an essay by the painter Yosef Chaikov, an illustration by Yitzchak Broiner and two illustrations by Marc Chagall.

Long Yiddish dedication [7 lines] handwritten and signed by Peretz Markish on the title page. Extremely rare item.

70, [2] pp. 28 cm. Yiddish. Very fine condition except for the binding, which has been professionally restored.