Physical Description

Six uncut booklets, quarto, 235:160 mm., wide uncut margins,  light age staining. Very good copies as issued.

Detailed Description  
Poetry by the noted author and poet Hebrew poet, writer, critic, and allegorist, Judah Leib Gordon (1831-1892). One of the outstanding poets of the 19th century, Gordon was also a witty, incisive journalist who courageously militated against the ills in Jewish society. He advocated social and religious reform and fiercely denounced the rigidness of its leaders, especially the rabbis. His wrath was vented most directly in his poetry and in satirical feuilletons. Probably the severest critic of his time and a fiery exponent of the Haskalah , Gordon is rightly considered one of its key spokesmen. He embodied an age which ended with him, but at the same time he paved the way for such poets as Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik , Saul Tchernichowsky , and others whom he had influenced. Bialik, his great admirer and successor as the "poet laureate" of Hebrew literature, called him "the mighty hammer of the Hebrew language." Gordon was born to well-to-do Jewish parents who owned a hotel in Vilnius. As a privileged child, he was able to study Torah with some of the great educators of the city, and soon proved to be an exceptional student. He had already mastered the entire Bible by the age of eleven, and was fluent in hundreds of pages of Talmud. Matters took a sharp turn when Gordon was fourteen, and his father went bankrupt. Unable to finance his son's education any longer, the younger Gordon began a course of independent study on one of the many study halls in the city. In just three years, he had mastered almost the entire Talmud and dozens of other religious texts. By that time, however, he was also drawn by the spirit of the Enlightenment that was sweeping across the city. He began reading secular literature and learning foreign languages, and he befriended some of the leading Enlightenment figures of the time, including Kalman Shulman and his son Michel. With the financial situation deteriorating at home, Gordon, then twenty-two, decided it was time for him to pursue a career. He received a teaching certificate from the local rabbinical college, and became a school teacher in some of the smaller towns that housed major yeshivas, including Ponivezh and Telz. During the twenty years he spent as a teacher, he produced his most important work as a poet and author. Having an established reputation, he was invited by the Jewish community of Saint Petersburg to serve as secretary of the community and of the Society for the Spread of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1892. Much of Gordon's poetry revolves around biblical and historical themes. These include The Love of David and Michal (1857), King Zedekiah in Prison (1879), Judah's Parables (1859), David and Barzilai, Osenath, Daughter of Potiphera, From between the Lion's Teeth, and From the Depths of the Sea. The works were intended to disseminate Enlightenment values and had a profound impact on Jewish life. Many feel his romantic works lack the same militancy of his poetic works, though his advocacy resurfaces in his realistic novels. Gordon also published collections of fables, most of them translated. In works such as "Little Fables for Big Children," he continues to advocate for the adoption of Enlightenment values, as he does in his memoirs, published in the last year of his life. Among his other writing on social issues is The Point on Top of the Yod, dealing with the rights of women.
           

Hebrew Description 

 ישנים גם חדשים, בששה ספרים. יוצאים לאור ע"י האחים נ’ וא’ בלעטניצקי מאדעססא ומ[רדכי] קאצענעלענבויגין מווילנא ... ספר א-ו.

לכל ספר שער נוסף באותיות קיריליות:

Polnoe sobranie stikhotvoreniya L. O. Gordona ....

ספרים א-ד יצאו לאור במתכונת הוצאת תרמ"ד, עם הוספות קצרות להערות שבסוף הספרים, מאת המחבר.

יש טפסים בהם נדפס בראש ספר ה מכתב מאת המשורר אל המוציאים לאור.

בשערים של הספרים ב, ד, ו נאמר: יוצאים לאור ע"י מ. קאצענעלענבויגין מווילנא והאחים נ. וא. בלעטניצקי מאדעססא.

ספר א: שירי הגיון. פורטריט, XXIV , 179 עמ’.

ספר ב: משלי יהודה. [2], XXIV , 209 עמ’.

ספר ג: שירי עלילה, קרת ימים ראשונים. [5], 211 עמ’.

ספר ד: שירי עלילה, קרת ימינו. VI , 208 עמ’

ספר ה: שירי [שיירי] השירים אשר ליהודה ליב גארדאן, כרך א: שירי הגיון. VII, 167 עמ’.

ספר ו: שירי [שיירי] השירים ... כך ב: שירי עלילה, קרת ימינו. [5], 146 עמ’.

עם הערות מאת יהושע סירקין (עמ’ 53-54, 115-118) ויעקב מזא"ה (עמ’ 75, 80).

References

Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000116481; EJ; http://en.wikipedia