Books by Joseph Sherman

This book seeks to challenge conventionally accepted views of David Bergelson's achievement by examining his entire oeuvre. It offers a full-length biography, the first comprehensive bibliography of Bergelson's work, and translations of two of his most influential programmatic essays.

Peretz Markish (1895-1952), one of Eastern Europe's most important Yiddish poets in the period between the two world wars, was a fiercely independent maverick who published work in all literary genres.

Among the finest prose stylists in Yiddish literature, David Bergelson (1884-1952) was caught up in many of the twentieth centurys most defining events. In 1909 he emerged as a pioneer of modernist prose, observing the slow decay of the Tsarist empire.

Early in the twentieth century, Yiddish, previously stigmatized as a corrupt jargon, came to be recognized as a language in its own right which was already the vehicle for a rich literature.