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In Hebrew. 30 pages. 20 x 15 cm. WorlCat: Libraries Worldwide: 8. First printed in ha-Boker Or, shanah 4. Nahum Meïr Schaikewitz, (Shaikevitsh; Schaikewitsch; Szajkiewicz Me?ir Meir Majer) also known by his pseudonym "Shomer" (December 18, 1849 in Nesvizh, Minsk region, Belarus, Russian Empire - 25 November 1905 New York City) was a Yiddish novelist and playwright. Although he was very popular in his time and a giant in Yiddish literature, sometimes styled the "Dumas of Yiddish literature", he was significantly damaged by Sholem Aleichem, who derided his plots as extravagantly artificial and improbable, characteristic of a cheap potboiler. Even as a boy Schaikewitz distinguished himself as a clever story-teller. His first literary efforts were short stories in Hebrew for Ha-Meliz. He thus became acquainted with such writers of Hebrew as Zebi Hirsch Scherschewski, Dobsevage, and others. Later he became a business manager in Vilnius, and spent some time in traveling. While in Bucharest he came under the influence of the Jewish theater and resolved to become a dramatic author. He then settled in Odessa, where he became theatrical manager and playwright at the Mariinski Theatre. His play Der Rewizor (Odessa, 1883), an adaptation from Gogol's Revizor (The Government Inspector), proved very successful and showed Schaikewitz's talent as a writer. He left for New York in 1888 after the Jewish theater was closed in Russia. There he edited Der Menschenfreund and Der Jüdischer Puck, two Yiddish-language weeklies. He wrote several Hebrew short stories, all representing Jewish life in Russian towns. Among these are: Mumar le-Hak'is (Warsaw, 1879); Kewiyah Tahat Kewiyah and ?a'ut Goi (Warsaw. 1880). He also wrote Ha-Niddahat (vols. 1 and 2, Vilnius, 1886; vol. 3, Warsaw, 1887); Kayin (Warsaw, 1887), a novel on Jewish life in Portugal. But Schaikewitz became especially known as a writer in Yiddish, taking as a model, and finally excelling, Isaac Meir Dick. He wrote over 200 works in Yiddish, many reflecting Jewish life in the small towns and villages of Russia in the middle of the nineteenth century. Among his more popular novels were Der Katorzhnikh, Der Blutiger Adieu, and Der Frumer Merder. Many of his historical novels appeared in the Yiddish daily press. Over thirty of Schaikewitz's plays were produced, first in Russia, then in New York, among them being one entitled Tisza-Eslar, on the subject of the blood accusation brought in the Hungarian town of that name. Others included Der Bel Tchuve (The Penitent) and Trefnyak (The Impure One). He was the subject of vitriolic attacks by S. Rabinovitz ("Sholem Aleichem"), who directed against him his Shomer's Mishpa? (Berdychev, 1888), reproaching him for his literary deficiencies. Schaikewitz successfully defended himself in a pamphlet entitled Yehi Or (New York, 1898), showing that his literary challenge was to satisfy everyone, from the well to do householder to the servant-girl who could not understand the works of the later Yiddish writers. Jacob Adler later wrote of his melodramas that "Nothing so crude as this can be found in Goldfaden. . . but the humor in Sheikevitch is more believable.?. Seller Inventory # 012985
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