TALUSH[1]
(May 17, 1887-July 7, 1962)
He was a
story writer, born Iser Muselevitsh in Dvinsk (Daugavpils),
Latvia. He was orphaned in his
youth. He wandered along the Volga River
and for a time lived there among vagabonds.
He learned Russian and left for abroad—Switzerland, Paris, twice in the
land of Israel, performing hard labor everywhere. In 1920 he emigrated to New York. In 1925 he founded the publishing house of Tsvaygn (Branches) for booklets. He spent his last years in Miami Beach. He began his literary work in 1909 in
Russian, and in 1920 he turned to Yiddish with a novel appearing in Tsukunft (Future) in New York; it was
entitled Fremde (Stranger), and in
book form it was titled Der yam roysht
(The sea rushes). He was a regular
contributor (1920-1921) to the daily newspaper Di tsayt (The times), later placing sketches and stories in Tog (Day), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Forverts (Forward), Tsukunft,
Amerikaner (American), Gerekhtigkeyt (Justice), Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of
labor)—all New York—and Eygns (One’s
own) in Bayonne, among others. Talush’s
sketches were often reprinted in the Polish Yiddish provincial press. Several of his stories were translated into
French, German, and English, among them “L’étranger” (The stranger), “a tale of
the new Jewish life in Palestine.” One
story drawn from the life of the pioneers in the land of Israel was dramatized under
the title “Der falfalener” (The lost one).
His work appeared as well in Mordekhai Ḥalamish, ed., Mikan umikarov, antologya shel sipure yidish
beerets yisrael (From near
and from far away, anthology of stories in Yiddish in Israel) (Merḥavya, 1966).
His writings include: Der yam roysht, dertsehlungen un skitsen
(The sea rushes, stories and sketches) (New York: Kultur, 1921), 378 pp.; A zump, ertsehlung fun amerikanem idishen
farmer leben (A marsh, a story from the life of an American Jewish farmer)
(New York: Zangen, 1922), 73 pp., later edition (1924); Der kholem, dertseylung (The dream, a story) (New York: Tsvaygn,
1925), 16 pp.; Ven mir zaynen kinder
geven, eskizn (When we were children, sketches) (New York: Tsvaygn, 1925), 16
pp.; Der bilbl, drama (The blood
libel, a drama) (New York, 1929), newspaper clippings from published chapters
in Fraye arbeter-shtime; Der bunt (The rebellion) (Warsaw: Kh.
Bzhoza, 1936), 288 pp.; Voglenish, roman
(Wandering, a novel) (Warsaw: Literarishe bleter, 1938), 560 pp.; Yidishe shrayber, derinerungen un fartseykhenungen
(Yiddish writers, memoirs and notes) (Miami Beach, 1953), 319 pp.; Mayn tatns nign, dertseylungen un skitsn
(My father’s melody, stories and sketches) (Buenos Aires: Der shpigl, 1957),
319 pp. He used the pen name Noytman for
the humor page of Forverts. In English: The New Bethlehem (New York, 1936), 281 pp. He died in Miami Beach.
“Behind
every one of Talush’s stories,” wrote Borekh Rivkin, “there is pantomime and
shadow play, which can be narrated and displayed without words…. He introduces into the events…his solitude—the
solitude of one who is all by himself in the world…. He seizes the solitary ones, makes them even
more lonely, borrows their unhappiness, and the joy of loneliness—befalls them.”
“Talush,
the convert to our literature,” noted A. Mukdoni, “…brought with him from Russian
literature the search and discovery in human disquiet, longing, and perpetual
haunting…. Talush…paints with the
quietest of colors. Often the colors are
so quiet that…only a sharp eye will even notice them.”
Talush in the
frontispiece to his book, Der yam roysht
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; A. Mukdoni, in Tsukunft (New York) 2 (1954); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (September 3,
1954); Ben-Tsien Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(New York) (February 2, 1958); Sh. Rozenberg, in Amerikaner (New York) (May 30, 1958); Yankev Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (July 10, 1962);
Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).
Yekhezkl Lifshits
[1] He was given this pseudonym by Zalmen Shneur in 1918
as a characterization of his life at the time—no home, no country, a wanderer.
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