FILIP BREGSTON (PHILIP P. BREGSTONE)

FILIP BREGSTON (PHILIP P. BREGSTONE) (1866-February 15, 1934)

            He was born in Iwye, Lithuania, and was brought as a child to the United States (Chicago).  He was by training a lawyer.  Initially, he wrote in English and later he began to write for Yidisher kuryer (Jewish courier) in Chicago.  He was the author of: In shturem fun lebn, a roman fun yidishn lebn in amerike (In the storm of life, a novel of Jewish life in America) (with a forward by Dr. Sh. Melamed) (Chicago, 1924), 226 pp.; and three books in English—among them the work, Chicago and Its Jews: A Cultural History (Chicago, 1933), 123 pp., which contains two chapters concerned with Yiddish literature and Yiddish drama in Chicago.  In the January-February 1934 issue of the journal Shikago (Chicago), Bregston published “Yakob varserman, daytsh, yid un kinstler” (Jacob Wasserman: German, Jew, and artist).

Sources: Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol.2, p. 517; Leye Mishkin, “Defus shikago beivrit vebeyidish” (Hebrew and Yiddish printing in Chicago), Pinkes shikago (1951).