Newspaper Page Text
January 28, 1938
The Southern Israelite
Page Five
LOUIS UNTERMEYER’S
Heinrich Heine: Parad&x
REVIEWING
and Poet
“I’m Gctling
OUTSTANDING NEW BOOKS
“TOMORROW’S BREAD”
ATLANTA COAL COMPANY
Published By
HaTcourt, Brace & Co.,
New York City
The singing glory that was Hein
rich Heine, and the tortured, con
tradictory course of his life, find-
voice and justification in Louis
Untermoyer’s crowning achieve
ment, “Heinrich Heine - Farad >x
Poet”. Boxed in two volumes,
“The Man” and “The Poems”, it
stands as a literary event which b
definitive in scope, and which in
stantly assumes a profound signi
ficance when viewed in the light
of Heine’s status in modern Ger
many. There is about it, particu
larly the biography, an aura of
inevitability — as if the author had
been expressly born to breathe
understanding into the complex
history of the German poet, to light
the candles of inviolability against
the circle of biographers who have
cut into the mystery of him with
clumsy knives. The translation of
Heine’s poems, too, have taken on
the aspect of predestination gen
erated by the biography. They
pulsate with the essenee, if not the
full flavor, of the German Jew’s
love for his fatherland, of his
Bacred and profane passions, of
his brooding self-mystery, of his
pride and his degradation, of his
many deaths and his many re
births.
It is not merely that Louis Un-
termeyer, by reason of his long
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Atlanta Constitution
LOUIS UNTERMEYER
interest in Heine dating from
childhood, has poured the fruit of
his research into this work ol love.
“Heinrich Heine — Poet and Para
dox” is veined with a consummate
understanding which springs from
the author’s own heritage as a Jew
and as a poet. With uncanny per
ception, he has bridged the
strange rivers that flow between
wish find lact, belief and action,
sometimes with the sensitive eyes
of the Jew, sometimes with the
harp of the poet, but always with
the staff of truth.
Louis Untcrmcycr opens the bio
graphical volume with Heine as a
boy, revealing him against the
background of his family. He was
37, when he met the incredible,
illiterate Mathilde. Mathilde’s
nunt sold her to Heine and then
began the strange romance which
lasted until Heine’s death. Once
Heine fled in an attempt to escape
her, but he was drawn back to his
coarse, arrogant mistress and fin
ally married her. The biograph
er’s closing chapters, beginning
with "The Poor, Sick Jew” are
brilliant, deeply moving recrea
tions of Heine’s last days, alto
gether perhaps the finest prose to
• be found in a biographical study in
years.
There are over five hundred
poems in the volume, “The
Poems”, including revised versions
j of Louis Untermcycr’s earlier tran-
] slations. In his foreword, the au-
! thor confesses that “Heine’s music
j can be heard only in the original
1 German”. What he has done in
J his translation, however, is as
; nearly perfect as the translator can
hope to achieve. If there is a loss,
; it is negligible in the presence of
the great tonal beauty, soul-stir
ring lyricism, which a great Amer
ican poet has wrought from the
glittering wealth which the coun
try beloved by a great German
poet has rejected.
“The Life”—403 pages—$3.75
“The Poems”—444 pages—$2.75
Both volumes boxed—$6.00
Reviewed By
Orin Borsten.
By Beatrice Bisno-—Jewish Publication Society
By Jolan Foldes
Farrar & Rinehart
The new novel from the pen of
Jolan Foldes, the Hungarian Jew
ess who won the All-Nations Prize
Novel Competition with “The
Street of the Fishing Cat” is an
engaging, frothy study of an am
bitious girl which further demon
strates the versatility of the au
thor. "While “I’m Getting Mar
ried” does not strike the deep,
emotional currents of Miss Foldes’
first book, nor achieve its prose
beauty, it is nevertheless a refresh
ing contribution to the light-read
ing fare of the season. The rich
promise which the author dis
played in her prize-winning novel
is evident in its pages, but since
"I’m Getting Married” is an earlier
work, judgment on that promise
must be reserved until publication
of a later novel.
Something of the wholesome
strength that was Anna’s in “The
Street of the Fishing Cat” is inher
ent in Susy, Miss Foldes’ new her
oine. Susy is a born leader, a
brisk, lively careerist who is in
tent upon achieving a name for
herself in Budapest. With Kata,
her dearest friend, and four other
girls, she conceives a plan for a
house-furnishing and decorating
business to be called “Home, Inc.”
The shadow of deportation threat
ens her, however, and in order to
remain in Hungary, she pays a
total stranger the sum of a thous
and pengos to marry her. Having
achieved success with Home, Inc.,
Susy decides that she will attempt
to make her husband, whom she
has not seen since the ceremony,
fall in love with her.
“I’m Getting Married” is rec
ommended to those who prefer
light, romantic fiction. To renders
who found "The Street of the Fish
ing Cat” memorable for Miss
Foldes’ warm and very human ob
servations on the life of refugees
in Paris, it offers a remarkable
example of the growth of a writer.
265 pages—$2.00
J. R.
MAIn
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SUPERIOR COAL OF UNVARYING QUALITY.
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WE WELD IT ALL
Beatrice Bisno in ‘Tomorrow’s
Bread,” winner of the Edwin Wolf
Prize Novel Contest for the best
novel of Jewish interest, has drawn
freely from the rich material of
fered by the labor struggle in
America. The Sam Karonski of
her story is not of the stature of
Gornpers, Hillman or Dubinsky;
obscure, bitter, inordinately vain,
he is a composite character of the
mass men who sacrificed their
lives and careers to further the
progress of labor.
Sam Karenski was apprenticed
to a “schneider” in Chattanooga,
Tenn. as a youngster. His family,
living in the Atlanta of the late
1870's, migrated to Chicago where
they found other Russian immi
grants. In the ghetto of Chicago,
Sam soon became the proprietor
of his own sweatshop, where mis
erable garment workers toiled long
hours for their daily bread. Before
the Haymarkot riot occurred, Sam
had become an ardent champion
for the needleworkcrs who were
demanding higher wages and bet
ter hours. To the horror of his
mother, the perpetually frenzied
Goldie, he gave up his status as
contractor, became a plodding
worker, and was elected president
of the new cloakmaker's union.
His first marriage was unsuccess
ful; Sam’s wife, Millie, nagged him
to distraction and interfered with
his union activities. Bessie, his
second wife, was a true Jcwsh he
roine, finding forgiveness in her
heart for Sam’s sins and ommis-
sions, bearing him children, shar
ing his poverty. Sam’s rise to
prominence was accompanied by
good fortune, and Bessie and the
children were enabled to move
from the squalor of the ghetto.
From Socialism, Sam Karenski had
derived more than a social educa
tion; he had also embraced the
doctrine of free love, and infidelity
was the only one of Sam’s faults
which Bessie could not counte
nance. More and more Bessie and
her children turned away from the
labor-intoxicated Jew, and in the
end Sam died a lonely, unloved
man.
It is a bitter, unpleasant portrait,
harshly realistic, which Beatrice
Bisno has drawn of Sam Karenski.
The same comic-strip portraiture
is evident in the entire gallery she
has created.
Atlanta readers will quarrel
with Miss Bisno’s statement that
there were no kosher butcher shops
or orthodox synagogues in the At
lanta of the late 1870’s or early
1880’s. The Hebrew Benevolent
Congregation, the author might be
interested to learn, was founded
in 1865 and was Orthodox when
Dr. David Marx assumed the pul
pit during the last years of the
century. Inasmuch as the “sho-
rhet” always precedes the rabbi
in Jewish communities, it is evi
dent that Miss Bisno has again
erred.
These inaccuracies are, however,
an inconsequential detail in a novel
which has color, vigor, humor and
a superb characterization that
the reader will not soon forget.
336 pages—$2.5ft
Reviewed by Orin Borsten
“HANNUKAH’’
By Emily Solis-Cohcn
Jewish Publication
Society, Philadelphia
This new anthology contains a
good bit of useful material. It is
divided into three sections: Han-
nukah and its Significance; Han-
nukah in Literature; and Com
memoration of Hannukah.
The first section contains some
choice bits of writing. Solomon
Grayzel’s “Hannukah and its His
tory” is excellent. Israel Abra
ham’s “Hannukah in Olden Times”
is a charming piece. Sidney B.
Hoenig’s “Quips and Quirks for
Hannukah” has merit but is prob
ably unintelligible to anyone with
out a background in Hebrew and
rabbinics. Milton Steinberg’s
“Judaism and Hellenism” is some- i
what marred by what appears to 1
be an uncontrolled exhibitionism, '
but it is decidedly a praiseworthy
essay.
“Hannukah in Literature” repro- !
duces the historical sources and j
some excellent verses and prose, |
but falls down in the section “Dra- i
ma.” Longfellow’s fifth act from
“Judas Maccabeus” recounts the j
story of Hannah and her seven
sons. The other plays lack true
dramatic flavor although they do i
retell the story of Hannukah.
“Commemoration of Hannukah” |
presents material for worship ser
vices and for parties. Not all the
material presented, however, can
be used.
But the book as a whole is an ex
cellent compendium and can af- j
ford pleasurable moments to th< I
reader. It belong on the Jewish !
book-shelf.
Reviewed Bj !
Dr. Samuel Sandme ; !
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MANN TO LECTURE
Thomas Mann will arrive in New
York on February 1st to begin a
lecture tour which will take hirr.
from coast to coast. The exiled
German writer’s new book, “Jo
seph in Egypt,” will be published
by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. later in
the month.
Among the cities which Mr.
Mann will visit are New York, New
Haven and Middletown, Conn.
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