Miriam Karpilove Explained

Miriam Karpilove (1888-March 9, 1956) was a Yiddish-language writer and novelist.

Biography

Karpilove was born in a small town near Minsk, to Elijah and Hannah Karpilov.^[1] Karpilove immigrated to America and worked for a decade as a photographic retoucher before becoming a journalist.^[2] She began writing in 1906, publishing her first piece that year in the Yiddish newspaper Di idishe fon.^[3] After achieving success in New York Yiddish newspapers, including Der tog and Forverts, Karpilove worked as a writer and editor of the women's page of a Yiddish newspaper in Boston.^[4] Karpilove would later draw on this experience in her 1926 novel A Provints-Tsaytung, whose protagonist is an undervalued journalist at a small newspaper. Karpilove was known for her serialized novels focusing on the lives of Jewish immigrant women in New York.^[5] In her works, Karpilove used the form of letters and diary entries to express her characters' feelings and thoughts.^[6] She served on the executive board of the Women's Jewish Congress Organization, a group working to ensure full political rights for Jews in foreign countries.^[7]

Bibliography

Plays

• In di shturem teg: Drama. New York: 1909.

Novels

• Yudes. New York: Mayzel et Co., 1911
• Tagebukh fun an elender meydl oder der kamf gegn fraye libe. New York: S. Kantrowitz, 1918.
• Brokhe, a Kleyn-Shtetldike. New York: 1923.
• A Provints-Tsaytung. New York: 1926.
• Di yam-tsig. Serialized in Forverts, October 19, 1929 – January 4, 1930.
• Kapitlekh fun dem lebn fun meydl. Serialized in Forverts, April 12, 1930 – June 25, 1930.
• Di retenish. Serialized in Forverts, October 14, 1930 — Sunday, April 5, 1931.
• Ire gelibte. Serialized in Forverts, October 17, 1931 — January 9, 1932.
• A lebn far a lebn. Serialized in Forverts, April 21, 1932 – October 23, 1932.
• Vu iz Feni? Serialized in Forverts, April 11, 1933 – October 28, 1933.
• Ire mener. Serialized in Forverts, September 14, 1935 — January 3, 1936.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kellman . Ellen . 2021-06-23 . Miriam Karpilove . 2024-05-09 . Jewish Women's Archive . en.
2. Web site: Kirzane . Jessica . Miriam Karpilove, Photographic Retoucherin Yiddish Book Center . 2024-05-24 . www.yiddishbookcenter.org . en.
3. Book: Karpilove, Miriam . A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories . 2023-09-15 . Syracuse University Press . 978-0-8156-5687-6 . en.
4. Book: Brinn, Ayelet . A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press . 2023 . NYU Press . 9781479817672.
5. Book: Corrsin, Stephen D. . Jews in America: From New Amsterdam to the Yiddish Stage. . 2012 . The New York Public Library . 138.
6. Book: The Cambridge history of Jewish American literature . 2015 . Cambridge University Press . Wirth-Nesher . Hana . 403.
7. June 30, 1916 . Women Organize for Jewish Congress . The American Jewish Chronicle . 1 . 8 . 252.