YITSKHOK BLUM

YITSKHOK BLUM (June 6, 1887-August 1965)

            A poet and storyteller, born in Tshekhanovtse, Grodno district, this was the adopted name of Y. Krivonogi.  He came from a poor family.  In 1905 he emigrated to the United States, where he worked in various and sundry trades.  In 1906 he debuted in print with a poem in Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) and a sketch in Forverts (Forward)—both in New York—where he would later publish many sketches.  He also wrote for Dos naye land (The new country), Literatur (Literature), Der inzel (The island), and other serials.  In book form: Fun breg tsu breg (From coast to coast), stories (New York, 1919), 220 pp.; In der shtil (In the quiet), poetry (New York, 1919), 215 pp.; In umru fun lebn, dertseylungen (In the chaos of life, stories) (New York, 1934), 159 pp.; A shtetele in poyln (A small town in Poland) (New York, 1939), 94 pp.; Geklibene shriftn, dertseylungen un lider (Collected writings, stories and poems) (New York, 1954), 158 pp.; In mayn literarisher akhsanye (In my literary inn) (Mexico City: Yidisher kultur-tsenter, 1964), 34 pp.  He died in Miami Beach.

Source: Sh. Tenenboym, in Dorem-afrike (Johannesburg) (November-December 1968).

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 88-89.