Rosa Harning Lebensboym (1887–1952), known by her

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Anna Margolin (), was an American

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

language writer of Jewish descent. She wrote journalism, criticism, and fiction, but is by far the best known for her poetry.

Biography

Born in Brest, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, she was educated up to secondary school level, where she studied

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. She first went to New York in 1906, and permanently settled there in 1913. Most of her poetry was written there. Margolin was associated with both the Di Yunge and ‘introspectivist’ groups in the Yiddish poetry scene at the time, but her poetry is uniquely her own. In her early years in New York City Margolin joined the editorial staff of the liberal Yiddish daily ''

Der Tog ''Der Tog'' () was a Yiddish-language daily newspaper published in New York City from 1914 until 1971. The offices of ''Der Tog'' were located on the Lower East Side, at 185 and 187 East Broadway. History The newspaper's first issue was on Nov ...

'' (The Day; founded 1914). Under her real name, she edited a section entitled "In der froyen velt" (In the women's world); and also wrote journalistic articles under various pseudonyms, including "Sofia Brandt," and – more often, in the mid 1920s – "Clara Levin." During the same period, she wrote prose short stories, often pseudoymously, which have received less critical attention than her poetry. Though her reputation rests mainly on the single volume of poems she published in her lifetime, ''Lider'' ('Poems', 1929), a posthumous collection, ''Drunk from the Bitter Truth'', including English translations, has also been published. One reviewer described her work as "sensual, jarring, plainspoken, and hard, the record of a soul in direct contact with the streets of 1920s New York". In 2022, a collection of four or her short stories was translated as ''During Sleepless Nights and Other Stories'' by Daniel Kennedy with Farlag Press.

Bibliography

Poetry *
Lider
'. oems/nowiki> (1929) * ''Drunk from the Bitter Truth: The Poems of Anna Margolin''. Translated Shirley Kumove. (SUNY, 2005)

Review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

/small> Prose * ''During Sleepless Nights and Other Stories''. Translated Daniel Kennedy. (Farlag Press, 2022)

References

External links

The Bridge
Short poem in translation
A Reading of Anna Margolin's "Mit halb farmakhte oygn"
*

*
Article in ''Forverts''

Anna Margolin papers
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, RG 1166.
Jewish Women's Archive page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margolin, Anna 1887 births 1952 deaths People from Brestsky Uyezd Jews from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Jewish American poets American poets in Yiddish Jewish women writers American women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers