David ben Saul Frischmann (, 31 December 1859 – 4 August 1922) was a Hebrew language and Yiddish language Modernism writer, poet and translator. He edited several important Hebrew periodicals, and wrote fiction, poetry, , , literary criticisms, and .
Biography
David Frischmann was born in the town of
Zgierz to Shaul and Freida Beila Frischmann. Frischmann's family moved to Łódź when he was two years old, where he received a private education combining Jewish and humanistic studies.
Frischmann showed literary talent at a young age, and was considered a prodigy.
Between 1895 and 1910 Frischmann studied
philology,
philosophy and the history of art at the University of Breslau where he befriended Micha Josef Berdyczewski.
Frischmann was imprisoned in
Berlin as an
enemy alien at the outbreak of the World War I. After a few months he was allowed to return to Poland; he returned to Warsaw and was deported to
Odessa by the Russian authorities when the German troops approached in 1915. In Odessa he translated the works of the
Brothers Grimm, Tagore, Goethe,
Heinrich Heine,
Lord Byron,
Oscar Wilde, and
Anatole France, and contributed poetry to the Yiddish magazine
Undzer Lebn. He briefly moved to
Moscow following the Russian Revolution of 1917, where he became chairman of the editorial board of the Stybel Publishing House. He returned to Warsaw after the
Bolsheviks closed the publishing house down in 1919.
Frischmann went to Berlin in 1922 to be treated for a serious illness, and died there that year. Eulogy at his funeral were delivered by Hayim Nahman Bialik and David Bergelson. His last work was a translation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus into Hebrew, which appeared posthumously.
Journalism and literary career
He published his first article, in Chaim Selig Slonimski's journal
Ha-Tsfira, at the age of 16 (written at age 13).
He went on to publish articles and poems in
Ha-Shachar,
Ha-Melitz, and
Ha-Yom, and later edited
Ha-Dor and
Ha-Tkufa. In 1883 he published a
Tohu va-Vohu ('Chaos and Emptiness'), a scathing criticism of Hebrew journalistic methods, especially directed against
Ha-Melitz. He moved to
Warsaw in the mid-1880s, where he wrote
Otiyot porḥot ('Blossoming Letters'), a series of long stories. In 1886, he became an editor of
Ha-Yom in St. Petersburg.
Frischmann translated works of European literature into Hebrew, among them works by Nietzsche, Pushkin,
George Eliot, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, and
Henrik Ibsen.
At the same time he worked as a Yiddish journalist for the Warsaw Jewish newspapers
Hoys-Fraynd,
Der Yud, and
Fraynd.
He visited the Land of Israel in 1911 and 1912 on behalf of the newspapers Ha-Tzefira and Haynt. Reports from his visits to Israel were collected in the book Sur la terre d'Israël ('On the Land of Israel', 1913), in which he described the landscapes, sacred places, and the revival of the Hebrew language. The impressions gathered there led him to believe in the future of Hebrew as a spoken language, although in his writings he remained faithful to Biblical Hebrew all his life.
Published works
-
Be-Yom Ha-Kipurim ('On the Day of Atonement'), Y. Alepin, 1881
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Tohu Va-Vohu ('Chaos and Void'), C. Kelter, 1883
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Otiyot Porchot: Sipurim, Reshimot ve-Tziyurim ('Flying Letters'), Ben Avigdor, 1892
-
Michtavim Al Devar Ha-Sifrut ('Letters on Literature'), Achiasaf, 1895
-
Ha-Golem: Ma'aseh ('The Golem'), Achiasaf, 1907
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Ketavim Niḥharim ('Selected Works'), Tushia, 1905
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Tziyurim u-Reshimot ('Drawings and Notes'), Moriah, 1910
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Ketavim Ḥadashim ('New Works'), Sifrut, 1910–1911
-
Partzufim ('Portraits'), Sifrut, 1911
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Yizkor ('Remember'), Ben Avigdor, 1913
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Ba-Aretz ('In the Land of Israel'), Achi Sefer, 1913
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Col Kitvei ('Collected Works'), Merkaz, 1914
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Aḥarit Yerushalayim ('The End of Jerusalem'), Zionist Confederation in Poland, 1910
-
Ba-Midbar ('In the Desert'), Ha-Sefer, 1923
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Kol Kitvei ('Collected Words'), Stybel, 1924
See also
-
Hebrew literature
-
Journalism in Israel
External links
