Thursday 16 February 2017

S. LOPUKHOV (TANKHN KREMEN)

S. LOPUKHOV (TANKHN KREMEN) (1868-1943)
            He was born in Zhaludek (Žaludok), Vilna district, Lithuania.  In 1888 he immigrated to the United States and lived for a time in New York, where he worked as a photographer.  He first published a poem in April 1892 in Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York, using the name T. Kremen, and thereafter he frequently published poetry in the radical publications of the day under the name S. Lopukhov.  He suffered from a lung ailment from before his arrival in America, and he thus could not remain for long in New York.  In 1895 he left for Denver, Colorado, and later moved on to Los Angeles, where he ran a photography studio.  His poems would appear, with long breaks, in Fray arbeter-shtime and other labor publications.  After WWI he published several pogrom poems which drew considerable attention.  His last poems, using his American name Theo Carmen, were published in Fraye arbeter-shtime in August 1937.  From these poems one learns that the poet in his old age was having trouble with his eyes and “the world was bringing darkness down upon him.”  He died in Los Angeles.

Source: N. B. Minkov, Pyonern fun yidisher poezye in amerike (Pioneers of Yiddish poetry in America) (New York, 1956), pp. 134-72.
Borekh Tshubinski


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