Alter Brody

1895–1979

The American poet Alter Brody was born in Ukraine and brought to the United States at age eight. He was educated in New York City public schools and rapidly became conversant in American culture and literature. At a young age he began contributing to well-known literary and public affairs magazines and attracted attention for his poetry. In the 1920s, however, his literary output diminished as he was drawn into political activism, specifically writing articles in praise of the Soviet Union. In 1934, he announced his intention to publish a wide-ranging anthology of Yiddish literature in English translation, but it never appeared. In the end, he disappeared from the literary scene and little is known of his later life.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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A Family Album

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Worn and torn by many fingers It stands on the bedroom dresser, Resting back against its single cardboard buttress, (There were two) The gilt clasp that bound it, loose and broken, The beautiful…

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Ghetto Twilight

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An infinite weariness comes into the faces of the old tenements, As they stand massed together on the block, Tall and thoughtful silent, In the enveloping twilight. Pensively, They eye each other…

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Lamentations

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In a dingy kitchen Facing a Ghetto backyard An old woman is chanting Jeremiah’s Lamentations, Quaveringly, Out of a Hebrew Bible. The gaslight flares and falls . . . This night, Two thousand…