David Aizman
{{Short description|Russian-Jewish novelist and playwright}}
{{Infobox writer
| image = Aizman DYa.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1869|3|26|df=y}}
| birth_place = Nikolayev, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
| death_date = {{death date and age|1922|9|26|1869|3|26|df=y}}
| death_place = Detskoye Selo, Soviet Union
}}
David Yakovlevich Aizman ({{langx|ru|Дави́д Я́ковлевич А́йзман}}; 26 March 1869 – 26 September 1922) was a Russian-Jewish novelist and playwright.{{Cite book |last=Abramson |first=Glenda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_FhfTvzjygC&dq=%22David+Aizman%22+1869&pg=PA11 |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-42865-6 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe |url=https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1314 |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=encyclopedia.yivo.org}}
Biography
David Aizman was born in Nikolayev, a coastal city in what is now Ukraine.{{Cite book|last=Shrayer|first=Maxim D.|title=An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry|publisher=Routledge|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7656-0521-4|location=Oxon|pages=113}} His older brothers were revolutionary activists.{{cite book|last=Hetényi|first=Zsuzsa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0hSXE7wtDk0C&q=david+aizman&pg=PA139|title=In a Maelstrom: The History of Russian-Jewish Prose (1860-1940)|publisher=Central European University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-963-7326-91-2|page=139, 259}} By the time he was 15, he was already earning his living as a private tutor. He lived in Odessa and worked for the Odessa Papers when he was 20. In 1896, he relocated to Paris to study painting.{{Cite book|last=Shrayer|first=Maxim D.|title=Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature: An Anthology|publisher=Academic Studies PRess|year=2019|isbn=978-1-64469-152-6|language=en}} Two years later, he and his wife, a Russian-Jewish physician, moved to the French countryside. While living in France, he made his debut in the magazine Russian Wealth. Two of his most original works, In a Foreign Land (1902) and The Countrymen (1903), were written and set in France.{{cite book|last=Shrayer|first=Maxim D.|title=An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: 1801-1953|year=2007|publisher=M.E. Sharpe, Inc|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7656-0521-4|pages=113–114|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DRrlV1Lc6qMC&q=david+aizman&pg=PA113}}
He returned to Russia in 1902. During the 1900s and 1910s his stories and novellas appeared in leading periodicals, and his plays were staged in major theatres. His works were published by Maxim Gorky's Znanie company among others. His open portrayal of Russian and Ukrainian anti-semitism made his fiction unpublishable in the Soviet Union, and his reputation and popularity suffered a serious decline. His critics included David Bergelson, who stated that Aizman was one of those who proclaimed their interest in Yiddish but were living in an alien culture.{{Cite book|last=Murav|first=Harriet|title=David Bergelson's Strange New World: Untimeliness and Futurity|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-253-03690-2|location=Bloomington, IN|pages=80}}
English translations
- The Countrymen, from An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: 1801-1953, Maxim Shrayer, M.E. Sharpe, 2007.
References
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Category:Writers from Mykolaiv
Category:People from Kherson Governorate
Category:Jewish Ukrainian writers
Category:Novelists from the Russian Empire
Category:Male writers from the Russian Empire