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CHAPTER 4 The Grandson: Trials of a Yiddish Humorist Sholem Aleichem once commented, to justify the simplicity of his prose, "Why should I write in the style of Yehuda Ha-Levi, and not in the style of Sholem Aleichem? Or, if I really must sing like another poet, I want to sing like the poet of poets-the people."l Although he excelled in conveying the voices of everyday people, he could not draw directly from life because other writers had set the literary precedents. He wanted to describe a Jewish bookseller, for example, but "it is very difficult now to depict one's own bookseller-after Abramovitsh's bookseller" (MBSA 196). An awareness of this crowded literary terrain led David Frishman to tell Sholem Aleichem in 1889 that "you could have written Stempenyu better, a thousand times better, if you had not fallen upon the unfortunate plan to imitate Abramovitsh."2 Sholem Rabinovitsh, or Sholem Aleichem as he came to be known, existed between the worlds suggested by two portraits that hung in his Kiev study: S. Y. Abramovitsh and Nikolai Gogo1.3 He published stories, novels, essays, polemics, and plays, and he achieved renown as an editor who solicited the best Yiddish fiction lVolf (Vevik) Rabinovitsh, Mayn bruder Sholem Aleichem: zikhroynes (Kiev: Melukhe-farlag far di natsionale minderhaytn in USSR, 1939), p. 112. Henceforth cited as "MBSA" by page alone. Sholem Aleichem expressed himself in Yiddish but used the French phrase "a la" to mean "in the style of." 2Dos Sholem-Aleichem bukh, ed. Y. D. Berkovitsh (New York: Sholem-Aleichem bukh komitet, 1926), p. 161. Henceforth cited as "SAB" by page alone. 3Compare David-Hirsh Roskies, "Sholem-Aleichems veg tsu zikh (tsu zayn finf un zibetsikstn yortsayt)," Di goldene keyt 132 (1991), p. 6; Roskies' discussion relies on the firsthand accounts by Y. D. Berkovitsh and Osher Beilin. Compare Y. D. Berkovitsh, Ha-rish'onim ki-vnei-adam: sippurei zikharonot 'al SholemAleichem u-vnei-doro, 3rd ed. (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1976), p. 242; henceforth cited as "R" by page alone. See also Osher Beilin, Sholem Aleichem (Merchavia: Hakibbutz ha-'artzi ha-shomer ha-tza'ir, 1945), p. 16. 103 104 SHOLEM ALEICHEM of the late 1880s. Before his death he became the most popular Yiddish writer and performed his stories in all the Jewish cultural centers of Eastern Europe. He was the worldliest of the three classic Yiddish authors and the only one to cross the Atlantic. Sholem Aleichem was at home in nineteenth-century Russian culture to the point that he conducted most of his family life and much correspondence in Russian; his children were more fluent in Russian than in Yiddish (as I. L. Peretz's son was more fluent in Polish). While he lived for many years in Kiev, distant from the centers of Yiddish and Hebrew publishing, he also traveled extensively in Europe and the United States. Sholem Aleichem read widely and exchanged letters with contemporary Russian literati such as Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, and Maxim Gorky. He wrote prolifically and epitomized classic Yiddish fiction, combining oralstyle narrative with other sophisticated literary devices. In spite of his familiarity with world literature, Sholem Aleichern followed in the footsteps of S. Y. Abramovitsh. Their works differ substantially, yet the literary persona of "Sholem Aleichem" and the character Tevye owe much to Abramovitsh's "Mendele the Bookseller." To a gn:ater extent than Abramovitsh, however, Sholem Rabinovitsh merged with his literary persona Sholem Aleichem, making it more than a fictional character or pseudonym. Even his autobiography was clearly influenced by Abramovitsh's autobiography -as in its use of third-person narration.4 Thus Sholem Aleichern , like Abramovitsh, employs a third-person voice to describe "the hero of this biographical novel" (FY 26: 19).5 He also seems to have recapitulated certain passages in Abramovitsh"s autobiography , such as the description of his father. Nevertheless, Sholem Aleichem tried to avoid falling into autobiographical cliches, and 4Compare Shmuel Niger, Sholem Aleichem: zayne vikhtikste verk, zayn humor un zayn art in der yidisher literatur (New York: YKUF, 1928), p. 166. 5Translations from the autobiography are based on Sholem Alelichem, Funem yarid: lebensbashraybung, in Ale verk fun Sholem Aleichem (New York: Folksfond Edition, 1917-23), vols. 26-27; cited as "FY" by volume and page alone. The standard volume numbers in Sholem Aleichem's Folksfond Edition are indicated by Uriel Weinreic:h in The Field of Yiddish: Studies in Yiddish Language, Folklore, and Literature, ed. Uriel Weinreich (New York: Linguistic...

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