Tuesday, 6 February 2018

SHIMEN NEPOM

SHIMEN NEPOM (1882-June 20, 1939)
            He was born in Elizavetgrad, Kherson district, Ukraine.  In 1904 he made his way to Paris and in 1908 to Canada where he initially lived in Montreal.  He later settled in Toronto, where for many years he worked as a tramway conductor.  From 1910 he was publishing lyrical and social poetry in: Keneder older (Canadian eagle), Dos folk (The people), and Der veg (The path)—in Montreal; Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word) in Winnipeg; Arbayter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) and Idisher zhurnal (Jewish journal) in Toronto; the anthologies Kanade (Canada) in Toronto, Nyuansn (Nuances) in Montreal, and Unzer gedank (Our idea) in Vilna.  His poems were included in the collection Amerike in yidishn vort (American in the Yiddish word) (New York, 1955).  In book form, he published: In gerangl (Struggling), poetry (Toronto: Yugnt, 1926), 228 pp., with drawings by Y. Daynof; Pentes (Trammels) (Toronto, 1928), 146 pp.; Di shtal, alegorisher eynakter in dray bilder (The stable, an allegorical one-act play in three scenes) (Toronto, 1929), 22 pp.; Fun mayne teg, geklibene lider (Of my days, selected poems), foreword by Kalmen Marmor (Toronto, 1940), 133 pp.  He died in Toronto, Canada.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Y. A. Rontsh, in Idisher zhurnal (Toronto) (1926); A. Fayerman, in Der shpigl (Buenos Aires) (April 1, 1942); Y. Rabinovitsh, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (November 2, 1959).
Benyomen Elis


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