Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew by Avner Holtzman (review)

Hayim Nahman Bialik needs no introduction. If you ever set your foot in an Israeli (or an Israel-oriented) educational institution, you have heard his name, most likely followed by flowery adjectives. The national poet whose works helped to shape the kernel of modern Jewish consciousness, and the Israeli national subject, was—and still is—at the heart of Zionist discourse. His writings mirrored the historical conditions under which they were created, while simultaneously altering history. His poems are known and recited; from early on, Jewish children in Israel know Bialik as part of their arsenal of modern Jewish forefathers, learning his nursery rhymes and attributing them to his large, fatherly persona. Not only are his words known and influential, even childhood misinterpretations of Bialik's language have turned into cult references, influencing culture, in their turn; see, for example, Rinat Primo's children story Mikhtav le'Bialik (A Letter for Bialik, 2015).

The extent to which Bialik has been mythologized conceals elements in his upbringing, personality, and life story that do not foretell his position as the national poet: his unhappy childhood in a family of timber merchants; his sufferings under a strict grandfather; his Yeshiva experience that did not result in the fulfilment of his grandfather's expectations; his unconfident entrance into the Hebrew republic of letters; the businesses he kept throughout his life; his marriage to Mania and other intimate relationships; his depressive personality and shying away from public attention. Thus, as with other figures that turned into national symbols, a scholarly biography of Bialik is necessary. Not only for a deeper understanding of his life and work, not only to contribute to the reinforcement of his figure, but also for the mere humanist task of turning him back into a human being, who lived his personal life in the shade of ideology, discursive powers and the myth of the national poet.

Avner Holtzman's Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew does this excellently. It sheds light on the public as well as the personal, balancing the different aspects of Bialik's life and writing. Holtzman's biography reads like a fascinating novel, in which the protagonist is depicted from many angles. Family, work, culture, ideology, relationships, and even his intimate psyche come to life through the four main chapters of the book. Each chapter corresponds to a defined period of Bialik's life, largely characterized by a geographical—and, to some extent, psychical—transfer. The story is constructed using numerous sources: letters, correspondences, lectures, recorded conversations, autobiographies, secondary sources about Bialik, and also his poems and prose which are often used here to cull details and support arguments pertaining to the context of their creation. "Bialik" with a capital B is shown here—especially in the first parts of the book dealing with his childhood—as a person, flesh and blood, dreams and hardships, longings and insecurities.

Holtzman's new book is an adaptation of Haim Nahman Bialik, his earlier biography of Bialik, published in Hebrew in 2009. Interestingly, the English version is lighter and easier to read, and the excellent translation by Orr Scharf is worthy of praise. The book's tone is more intimate too: compared to the Hebrew biography, the English version includes more anecdotes, as well as quotes from Bialik's personal correspondences presented in an accessible style. It is as if in the transfer from Hebrew to English some of the national weight has been lifted, re-creating Bialik's biography as an interesting human story. Moreover, in the English version every term, name, and event is briefly explained, not leaving a single Hebrew word untranslated. Therefore, this book can easily appeal to readers unfamiliar with Jewish history, Hebrew, or Zionism. Simultaneously, this is an academic biography, and a meticulously detailed one, and readers can benefit from the footnotes, index, bibliography, and chronology added in the end of the book. In sum, Holtzman, together with Scharf, created a...