STORIES AND PICTURES ... Translated From the Yiddish by Helena Frank

Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1906. Octavo, pp. [1-5] 6-7 [8-9] 10 [11-13] 14-455 [456: printer's imprint], title page printed in red and black, original decorated red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black and gold. First edition. Short fiction and sketches by a Russian Jewish writer first published in Russia between 1875 and 1900. "The Dead Town" is a macabre story about a town inhabited by the walking dead -- the horror keeps its edge even after the symbolism is accounted for. In "Bontzye Shweig" a poor uncomplaining man dies and goes to heaven, where he is welcomed admiringly, surprising the man and, in the end, the reader, who may sense a whiff of the cabalistic in what might have been dismissed as a whitewashing account of a nebbish who should have done some more complaining. But the judge of the heavenly court tells him, "You yourself knew nothing of your hidden power. In the other world your silence was not understood, but that is the world of delusion; in the world of truth you will receive your reward." The reward he asks for is a hot roll with butter every day for breakfast. Other stories retell legends from the Talmud and other sources. The material is sometimes a little diffuse from a literary point of view. Includes helpful footnotes and glossary for the non-Jewish reader. Small, neat 1907 gift inscription at top edge of title page. Cloth lightly worn at spine ends, spine sunned, else a very good copy. (#116779) (Inventory #: 116779)