36. [A Rare Soviet Yiddish Literary Journal Edited by Itsik Fefer] Fefer, Itsik, editor; Alukraynisher Orgkomitet fun di Sovetishe Shrayber

FARMEST: LITERARISH KINSTLERISHER UN KRITISH-BIBLIOGRAFISHER ZSHURNAL. 1935: NOS. 11-12 (NOV., DEC.) ; 1936: NO. 2 (FEB); 1937: NOS. 3-5 & 12 (MARCH, APRIL, MAY, DEC.) [7 ISSUES TOTAL] פארמעסט

Kharkov: Ukrmelukhenatsmindfarlag, 1935-1937. Item #43101

First edition. Original illustrated paper wrappers, 8vo, issues range from 129-196 pages each. Includes illustrations. 21-23 cm. In Yiddish. Title translates roughly as “Challenge: A Literary, Artistic, and Critical Bibliographical Journal.”
At the time, the only Yiddish literary periodical in Ukraine.
Farmest (1933–1937) was a monthly Yiddish literary magazine published in Kharkhiv, Ukraine by the Ukrainian Committee for Soviet Writers. “Edited by the poet Itsik Fefer (1900–1952), [it] was continued in Sovetishe literatur: Literarish-kinstlerisher un kritish-bibliografisher zhurnal (Soviet Literature: Literary-Artistic and Critical-Bibliographical Journal; 1938–1941)....
In 1927, Fefer was a founding member of the Jewish Section of the All-Ukrainian Union of Proletarian Writers and, from 1928, one of the editors of its Kharkov-based journal, Prolit (Proletarian Literature). He also coedited the nonproletarian Kharkov journal Di royte velt (The Red World) from 1929. From 1933 to 1937, he edited the Kiev periodical Farmest (Challenge; known as Sovetishe literatur [Soviet Literature] between 1938 and 1941), which replaced Prolit and Di royte velt and was thereafter the only Yiddish literary periodical in Ukraine.” (YIVO). Avrom Gontar was also involved in the collective and editorial committee.
The editor, Itsik Fefer (1900–1952), “began writing poems in 1918, and in 1922 joined Vidervuks (New Growth) in Kiev, a group of young Yiddish literati whose mentor was Dovid Hofshteyn. That same year, the appearance of Fefer’s small collection Shpener (Splinters) established him as a rising literary star. His poetry amalgamated the Kultur-lige poets’ revolutionary romanticism with the propagandist objectives of the workers’ movement.
Fefer was known for his literary credo of proste reyd (simple speech), a concept he formulated in 1922. In the early 1920s, poetry, particularly avant-garde poetry, swamped the literary pages of Soviet Yiddish periodicals. This phenomenon worried editors and critics, who were wary of the fact that Yiddish readers usually could not identify with this style of literature. All Yiddish readers, by contrast, could understand Fefer’s proste reyd.
In 1927, Fefer was a founding member of the Jewish Section of the All-Ukrainian Union of Proletarian Writers and, from 1928, one of the editors of its Kharkov-based journal, Prolit (Proletarian Literature). He also coedited the nonproletarian Kharkov journal Di royte velt (The Red World) from 1929” (Gennady Estraikh).
For more, see: Gennady Estraikh, “The Kharkiv Yiddish Literary World, 1920s–Mid-1930s,” East European Jewish Affairs 32.2 (2002): 70–88; Chone Shmeruk, “Yiddish Literature in the U.S.S.R.,” in The Jews in Soviet Russia since 1917, ed. Lionel Kochan, pp. 242–280 (London and New York, 1970).
SUBJECT(S): Yiddish literature -- Ukraine -- Periodicals. Yiddish literature. OCLC: 35051038.
Some pages brittle, some wear to spines. Overall Good Condition. Rare. (YID-46-2-LGG-’excc).

Price: $1,400.00