Katz Aleph Alef (2 results)

Hardbound. Condition: Good. Octavo, blue cloth with black lettering, 59 pp. Text is in Yiddish.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. In Yiddish. 30, (2) pages. Includes 7 dali-esque illustrations by Kotler. 211 x 157 mm. Signed, dated (1934) inscription by the author to Aaron Glanz Leyels (Aron, Arn Glantz Leieles) the Yiddish poet, novelist, journalist, translator, editor (5 March 1889 Wloclawk, Poland - 30 December 1966 New York). Leieles was a territorialist and wanted European Jews to migrate not to Israel but to Alaska. Last half century of his life he spent in New York. In original dramatic color illustrated boards. "Yosl Kotler was a master of the stylized grotesque. He was also an extraordinarily accomplished draftsman, able to stretch, shrink and contort a line into an endless kaleidoscope of forms. Kotler is one of the great American artists of modern times, but has never achieved recognition as such. Perhaps because he worked almost exclusively in the Yiddish-speaking milieu, and mainly among Communist circles. Or because he spread his abundant talents in so many directions, including painting, illustration, cartoons, theater design, poetry, fiction, and puppetry. Kotler was fifteen and an orphan when he arrived in America in 1911. He thrived primarily as an illustrator and puppeteer, teaming up with Zuny Maud, an equally multi-talented fellow Bohemian, to create a cult puppet theater in 1925. Kotler was driving to Hollywood hoping to make a puppet movie when he died in a car crash in 1935. His funeral brought 10, 000 people onto the streets of New York. Author Herman Gold was another extraordinary Lower East Side character, described by memoirist Reuben Iceland as "the weaver of the weirdest, wildest word plays. " In other words, Gold s stories and Kotler s artwork are the perfect match" (Mazower, 2019) . "Andere arbetn fun dem zelbikn shrayber" (Other works by the same author) on page 32. SUBJECT(S) : Yiddish poetry. Yosel Cutler [Alef Kats Yosl Kotler] (illustrator). …