A history of Yiddish literature from the fourteenth through the 18th century wirtten by Maks Erik , the pseudonym of Zalman Merkin (1898–1937). He was a Yiddish literary critic. Born in Sosnowiec, Russian Poland, Erik was educated privately (among his tutors was Hayyim Nahman Bialik) and later studied at a Russian-language high school and at a Polish officers' training school from which he graduated as a reserve officer. In 1922 he settled in Vilna where he taught Yiddish literature at the Yiddish high schools.

Erik published his first essay in 1918 and then contributed studies, essays, and critical articles to various Yiddish journals. His first works on Yiddish literature were Konstruktsiye Shtudiyen ("Construction Studies," 1924), an analysis of the variants of Peretz's plays; Vegn Alt-Yidishn Roman un Novele–14ter–16ter Yorhundert ("About the old Yiddish novel–14th–16th centuries," 1926); and Di Geshikhte fun der Yidisher Literatur fun di eltste Tsaytn biz der Haskole Tekufe ("History of Yiddish Literature–from the beginning to the Haskalah Period," 1928). Erik formulated the idea about the Shpilman ("troubadour") era in Yiddish literature, a period when the dominating form was the epic, when the folksinger and troubadour sang and recited his own original poems or those adaptations from other languages to which he gave Jewish form and content.

In 1929 Erik settled in the Soviet Union. He lived in Minsk and Kiev and taught Yiddish literature at various Jewish institutions of higher learning. His works of the Soviet period were written from the official party-line point of view and include a study of Sholem Asch (1931); Etyudn tsu der Geshikhte fun der Haskole ("Studies in the History of the Haskalah," 1934); and Di Yidishe Literatur in XIX Yorhundert, vol. 1, co-authored with A. Rosenzweig ("A History of Yiddish Literature in the 19th century," 1935). He also edited Di Komedies fun der Berliner Ufklerung ("The Comedies of the Berlin Haskalah," 1933) and a selection of the works of Solomon Ettinger (1935). Erik was arrested in May 1936, when the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture of the Ukrainian Academy of Science was liquidated. He was exiled and died in the Vietlosian prison camp in Siberia.