Peretz Smolenskin

Peretz Smolenskin (1840 - 1885, b. Monastryrshchina, Russia) was born into a poor family laden with misfortune. At five he witnessed the seizure of his eldest brother by the Czar's army. He never saw him again. His father, who had been falsely accused of a crime, became a fugitive for over two years. He died when Peretz was eleven. A year later Smolenskin left home to join an older brother at a yeshiva, where he remained for over five years.
Introduced to the ideas of the Haskalah by his brother, he began to read secular books and to learn Russian. He was so persecuted for these practices that he fled to Chassidic centers, where he spent almost three years. After a year of wandering through southern Russia and the Crimea, supporting himself by singing in choirs and preaching in synagogues, he reached Odessa in 1862. There he remained for five years, studying music and languages and earning his living as a Hebrew teacher. In 1867, while in Odessa, he published his first story. Smolenskin left Odessa and traveled through Rumania, Germany and Bohemia, acquiring Turkish nationality en route. In Vienna he founded a Hebrew journal, which became the most effective Hebrew literary platform for the Haskalah movement in its later period, and for the nationalist movement in its early stages.
For almost seventeen years, Smolenskin devoted himself to this monthly publication, which he published, edited and managed, in addition to serving as proofreader, distributor and one of its principal contributors. Smolenskin also devoted much time and energy to public affairs, and as one of the leading advocates of the Jewish return to Eretz Israel, he conducted negotiations with Laurence Oliphant to obtain support for Jewish settlement there. He was stricken with tuberculosis in 1883, and continued writing to the end of his life, finishing his last novel, The Inheritance, shortly before his death.

Books Published in Hebrew

The Joy of the Godless, Vienna-Ha-Shahar, 1872 [Simhat Hanef]

A Donkey's Burial, Vienna-Ha-Shahar, 1873 [Kevurat Hamor]

Pride and Fall, Vienna-Ha-Shahar, 1874 [Ga'on Va-Shever]

The Reward of the Righteous, Wien-Ha-Shahar, 1875 [Gemul Yesharim]

The Wanderer in the Paths of Life, Wien-Ha-Shahar, 1876 [Ha-To'eh Be-Darkei Ha-Hayim]

The Inheritance, Wien-Ha-Shahar, 1877-84 [Ha-Yerushah]

Collected Works, VilnaKatzenelbogen, 1901 [Col Sifrei Peretz Smolenskin]

Hundred Letters, VilnaKatzenelbogen, 1905 [Meah Michtavim]

The Reward, Vilna-Katzenelbogen, 1910 [Ha-Gemul]

Articles, The Smolenskin Foundation, 1926 [Ma'amarim]

Selected Stories and Articles, Dvir, 1941 [Mivhar Sipurim Ve-Ma'amarim]

Books in Translation

The Wanderer in the Paths of Life
Yiddish: Warsaw, Sefer, 1927

Individual stories have been published in Yiddish and German.