Pinski, David

DI FAMILYE TSEVI: TRAGEDYE IN FIER AKTEN [FAMILIE TSVI, TZVI] די פאמיליע צבי: טראגעדיע אין פיער אקטען

Zshenev [Geneva]: Aroysgegeben fun Bund, 1905. Item #42201

1st edition. Original printed wrappers (Rear wrapper only, Front Wrapper is missing), 8vo, [79] pages. The exceedingly rare 1905 1st edition of this seminal Yiddish play, published by the Bund in exile in Geneva. In Yiddish. Title translates as “The Family Tsvi [Hirsch]: A Tragedy in Four Acts.” This Bund-published first edition is especially significant because it is the Jewish Labor Bund (the Allgemeyner Idisher Arbeyterbund in Lita, Poylen un Rusland) which features significantly in the play and with whom Pinski was associated his entire early life. As noted by David Rosenthal, “In the history of Yiddish drama one thinks of the publication of Pinski's 'The Family Zvi' as a critical date. Pinski, who wrote this play after the pogroms in Russia, told about this story in…'Selected Works' (Haifa, 1963): 'In 1904, Arkady Kramer, founder and leader of the Bund, visited the United States. We were already friends and I read my new play to him, the first act of which had not been passed by the Russian censor. Kramer immediately took the story from me to publish it by the Bund in Geneva. Early in 1905 the play appeared with a foreword taken from my letter to the publisher.' Immediately after the play appeared, drama groups began organizing to produce it. From Tsarist Russia the movement spread to Galicia and it became a favorite among Jewish students in various universities in Europe. The impression made upon the masses must have been a very strong one and its influence very widespread. It called attention to the various leanings among the people and contributed a great deal to the organization of the Jewish self-defense movement. (Pinski's evaluation) Zionist youth, too, said Pinski, organized amateur troupes to perform 'The Family Zvi.' The slogan 'if we can't live like mentshn, then we must be able to die like mentshn' was enunciated by the Zionist Lippman. And did this not become the slogan of the Jewish selfdefense? The old magid Moshe Zevi paraphrased it this way: 'If we cannot live as Jews, then we must be able to die like Jews!' But in this version it became a battle-cry, a battle-cry that was shot through with glowing faith in victory. In his introduction to the drama Pinski says that although people are reading it secretly and peforming [sic] it in concealed places, hope lives deep -just as the seed lies deep in the ground, but the bread grows mightily out of the earth…” [“DAVID PINSKI: Dramatist, Poet and Builder (on the 125th anniversary of his birth)” In Jewish Frontier, Vol.LXIV ,No5 (September/October 1997) p. 26]. Pinski (1872–1959) was a leading “Yiddish prose writer and playwright.” In 1892, “on his way to Vienna, hoping to study medicine, Pinski stopped in Warsaw, where he met Y. L. Peretz. Pinski remained in that city from 1892 to 1896. His first pieces in Yiddish were marked by his close collaboration with Peretz and the latter’s circle, who were developing new and radical approaches to modern Yiddish literature in particular, and Jewish culture in general.” Pinski “became one of the main contributors to Yontev-bletlekh (1894–1896) and to the anthology Literatur un lebn (Literature and Life; 1894), publications under Peretz’s editorship that played a pioneering role in disseminating radical and socialist thought among Jewish workers, to the extent possible under tsarist censorship. Peretz and Pinski positioned themselves quite close to the founders of the Jewish labor movement in Eastern Europe, and laid the foundation for Jewish worker literature in its various genres: serious fiction, popular scientific articles, and feuilletons. Pinski was also involved in distributing publications by the group, and he helped to organize zhargonishe komitetn (“jargon committees”), which established libraries and disseminated reading matter to workers. In his travels, he came into direct contact with groups that then formed the core audience for modern Yiddish literature. Because the possibilities for Yiddish publishing in Russia were very limited, he also wrote for the radical Yiddish press in America. A significant number of his stories were printed there [or, in this case, in Western Europe] even before being published in Eastern Europe.In 1896, Pinski settled in Berlin to study at the university. This move effectively marked the end of his East European period. In Berlin he continued to contribute to the radical Yiddish press in New York and remained active in Yiddish publishing endeavors. At that time he also made his first serious attempts at playwriting….. Many of Pinski’s early pieces focused on the arousal of the strong and sometimes extreme feelings of individuals who collided with an insensitive and cruel environment. Pinski’s early stories played a significant role in the modernization of Yiddish prose” (Novershtern in YIVO Encyclopedia). SUBJECT(S): Yiddish drama. Theatre yiddish. No copies on OCLC, Harvard, nor KVK. We could locate only 2 copies, at YIVO at NLI (990021553810205171). OCLC does list the more common 1906 2nd editions from Vilna (122775341) and Warsaw (1268440193). Lacking the front wrapper (probably the same as the title page, which is present?) but with the rear wrapper and all other pages present (including half title, title page, and text including the final page with the Yiddish neighborhood map). Spine rebacked. Staining to half title (first leaf), with some spotting to title and other pages. Heavy rag paper remains strong and bright. Good solid Condition. Rare and important. (YID-43-32A).

Price: $1,200.00