Alter Brody, American Poet and Playwright (1)
Herbert Kuhner and George Wallace have edited
Before the Storm - The Complete Poetic Works of Alter Brody
The American Jewish poet Alter Brody published A Family Album,
a volume of poetry, in the last year of World War I.
He continued to publish in journals during the Twenties.
In 1928, Brody published Lamentations, Four One Act Plays.
After that, he fell into obscurity.
The English poet and publisher, Anthony Rudolf published poems by Brody
in his Voices in the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets
and tracked him down just before his death in 1981.
Alter Brody’s work uniquely melds the ambiance of a European shtetl background
and Jewish neighborhoods in New York
in poetic American colloquial language!
His place in the American poetry and world literature
is waiting to be occupied by him.
Brody’s Poetry in Brief
Alter Brody ought to be read by anyone today with an appreciation
for an exploration of the breadth of our inherited cultural soul,
as it grew from infancy in a gone world of the Jewish immigrant experience…
these are neither ethnic caricatures nor self-indulgent musings
over the minutiae of personal and family life.
At the height of their power, Brody’s works are transcendent -
they attain the colorful detail and specificity of true ethnic portraiture.
Achingly honest. Loving to a fault. Gritty and ambitious and real.
- George Wallace
Alter Brody wrote about everyday life and occurrences in colloquial,
but yet poetic language. His lines live with rhythm and color,
as well as the grit and sweat that made up the city life he was familiar with.
And of course, in addition to his love poems for locations,
there are love poems for the women he knew….
He was far ahead of his time, and he still is.
Pioneers are never overtaken.
- Herbert Kuhner
There are German translations for all the poems by
Heinrich Eggerth and Ursula Gerhart
