Osip Dymov was the pseudonym for Yosif (Osip) Isidorovich Perelman (1878–1959), a Russian writer.[1] His brother was popular-science writer Yakov Perelman.[2]
Dymov was born in Białystok, in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Poland).[3] His father came from Germany, and died when Yosif was quite young. Yosif attended a Russian gymnasium, and went on to study at the Imperial Forestry Institute in St. Petersburg,[3] graduating in 1902.
At the age of 16 he began to publish humorous stories in Russian satiric journals.[3] At that time he took the pen name 'Osip Dymov', from the character in Anton Chekhov's short story "The Grasshopper" (1892),[4] and continued to write under that name throughout his career.[1]
He emigrated to the United States in 1913,[3] at the invitation of Yiddish actor and theatre director Boris Thomashefsky,[2] and subsequently became known for his contributions to Yiddish theatre.[1] Among his most popular plays are Yoshke Musikant (Yoshke the musician; 1914) and Bronx Express (1919).[2] The latter play had its premiere in 1919 in a Yiddish translation, at the Jewish Art theatre of Jacob Ben-Ami; it was later translated into English and performed at the Astor Theatre on Broadway, in 1922,[5] to mixed reviews.[6]