EMANUEL FERSHLAYSER (FERSHLEISER)

EMANUEL FERSHLAYSER (FERSHLEISER) (November 30, 1896-November 20, 1959)

            He was born in Staroselye, near Lemberg, Galicia.  He graduated high school and studied at university.  From 1916 until the end of WWI, he served in the Austrian army.  He began writing in Polish very early.  In 1921 he came to the United States and there published stories and humorous sketches in: Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Tog-morgn-zhurnal (Day-morning journal), Frayhayt (Freedom), Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), and Forverts (Forward) in New York, among others.  He wrote under the pen name: E. Hartnek.  For over fifteen years, he contributed work initially to Morgn-zhurnal and later to Tog-morgn-zhurnal in New York.  He published essays on literature, reportage pieces, impressions, and the like; for Tog-morgn-zhurnal he also wrote popular scientific articles under the pen name: Dr. Y. Buksboym.  In book form: Dertseylungen (Stories) (New York: Biderman, 1958), 150 pp.; Af shrayberishe shlyakhn, kritishe eseyen (In writers’ battles, critical essays) (New York, 1958), 236 pp.; posthumously published, Geklibene dertseylungen (Selected stories) (Tel Aviv: Y. L. Perets, 1962), 240 pp.  “He seeks,” wrote Yankev Glatshteyn, “to express the positive.  The dominant tone in his critical essays is an amicable, warm, and even respectful one, but this does not spoil for Fershlayser the value of his expressed opinions….  From his essays on younger writers, one can see that he has done a great deal of pioneering work.  He did not have or had little of a prepared point of view.  He himself had to open it this field.”

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Moyshe Shtarkman, in Tog (New York) (November 26, 1938); L. Khanukov, in Hamer (New York) (March 1939); Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 1, 1959); M. Yofe, in Tsukunft (New York) (March 25, 1959); Yofe, in Zayn (New York) (January 1960); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (December 18, 1959); Glatshteyn, Mit mayne fartog-bikher (With my daybreak books) (Tel Aviv, 1963), pp. 548-55; Yefim Yeshurin, 100 yor moderne yidishe literatur, biblyografisher tsushteyer (100 years of modern Yiddish literature, bibliographical contribution) (New York, 1966), pp. 97, 141.

Leyb Vaserman