Yakov Lidski
Yakov Lidski was a Warsaw-based Jewish bookseller and publisher, pioneer of Yiddish literature publishing. Founder of “Progress” publishing house, which was the first to publish modern Yiddish literature, and co-founder and owner of the important publishing syndicate “Central.”
Biography
The beginning of his book business: from Moscow to Chicago
Born in 1868 into a Lithuanian Jewish family in the Jewish town of Slonim, Grodno Governorate, Russia, Lidski attended the traditional Cheder and Yeshiva. His father, Kalman Lidski, co-founded alongside Yitzchok Yakimowski the most important enterprise of sofer products in Slonim, which was a center of this industry in Russia. They employed many sofrim, and distributed the company's products throughout Eastern Europe from their warehouse in Moscow. Lidski moved to Moscow after completing school, becoming his father's right hand and a talented publisher.After the expulsion from Moscow, his father's partnership fell apart. Conditions in Lidski’s hometown degraded severely during his time in Moscow, and many there had immigrated to the United States. Lidski first moved to Minsk, before taking up residence in Chicago, Illinois. Carrying on his father’s legacy, Lidski opened the highly profitable bookstore and publishing company named “J. Lidskin Co.” at 503 South Jefferson St., and became one of the first publishers of Yiddish books within the United States. These works included shund novels, sheet music and songs from the Yiddish theater, newspapers, and textbooks, all in Yiddish. During 1894 to 1895, he published collections of song lyrics without notes edited by songwriter Isaac Reingold; with Yiddish parodies he wrote, humorising popular American songs. Lidski used his industry knowledge to help Jewish immigrants open small stores and supplied them with newspapers sourced from Chicago and New York City, further boosting Yiddish culture. In addition, he was appointed treasurer of the Yiddish Society of Classic Literature in Chicago.
Warsaw: Nalewki Street Bookstore and "Progress" Publishing House
In 1899 Lidski returned to Russia, equipped with a substantial sum of 2,000 rubles and matrices of Yiddish books published in America, and settled in Warsaw, Russian Poland, as the Russian representative of the American Jewish publishers in the Polish and Russian markets. At the same time he helped radicals smuggle forbidden literature into the Russian Empire. In addition, he acquired from Abraham Kotik – a pioneer of the Jewish socialist movement, one of the first Yiddishists and one of the first to develop popular Yiddish literature and bring the Jewish intelligentsia closer to Yiddish – his publishing house. The enterprise, founded in 1894 in collaboration with Alter Bresler, published a series of Yiddish popular science books called "Visenshaftlikhe folks-bikher".In 1900, Lidski founded "Progress" publishing house. Its name clearly communicated its goal. This publishing company, considered to be the first to deal with modern Yiddish literature, published a series of original and translated popular science books, along with translated European literature and original Yiddish literature. The first editor of the publishing house was poet Avrom Reyzen. Many of the books published in the beginning were reprints of books previously published in the United States or by Kotik, among which is the first book in the series "Visenshaftlikhe folks-bikher", Vi Haben Menshen Gelebt mit Einige Toizend Yor Tzurik? by Boris Pavlovich, translated by Kotik and Bressler, and Yosef Perl: Zayne Literarishe un Allgemayne Arbeit by Bresler.
The first book to be published, in 1901, was Shteiner Vos Falen fun Himel – a popular explanation of meteorites, shooting stars and comets, by the socialist, popularizer of science, and anti-religious fighter Benjamin Feigenbaum. The house editor, Avrom Reyzen, later wrote that "the crowds were so thirsty for science then; they devoured Stones Falling From the Sky like the starving Jews in the desert devoured the manna, which once fell like stones from heaven!". The three books that appeared next were Die Menshlikhe Entviklung: Kultur Geshikhte by Friedrich Streissler, loosely translated by Alter Bressler ; a translation of Vladimir Korolenko's "The Blind Musician" ; and Darvinismus, oder, Darvin Had Getrofen by Feigenbaum.
In addition to these, Progress published original Yiddish fiction – the complete works of Y.L. Peretz and Sholem Aleichem, Sholem Asch, Yona Rosenfeld, David Pinsky, David Frishman and Mordecai Spector, works by Peretz Hirshbein, Der Nister, Chaim Nachman Bialik and others, among which was Avrom Reyzen's first collection of poems, who, in addition to being the publishing house editor, was its main author in its first years.
Lidski's bookstore on Nalewki street, the center of Jewish life in Warsaw, offered a large selection of Yiddish books of various kinds: popular science, fiction, language-learning books, plays, sheet music of Jewish music, folk songs, photo albums and other Yiddish printed matter: pictures, postcards, and greeting cards. Lidski Imported American- and British-made Yiddish books of various types: fiction and non-fiction, textbooks and sheet music. Apart from numerous American-made fiction books, including many Yiddish adaptations of world literature, Lidski allowed for the Jews of Eastern Europe – more than 1,200,000 of whom were to immigrate to the United States in the years 1904 to 1914 alone – to gain knowledge about America, using a wide selection of books: the store sold Yiddish publications about the history of the United States, the U.S. Constitution and key personalities and events in American history, novels of American life and its Jewish immigrants, and books and dictionaries for learning English by Alexander Harkavy. Being close to radical circles, Lidski continued helping Jewish revolutionaries import socialist literature.
Thanks to his agility and entrepreneurship, the publishing gradually evolved and expanded – especially in the years following the revolution of 1905, along with the general increase in demand for books in Yiddish from a broad readership. Progress flourished thanks to the good quality and wide selection of books offered, and it shortly became the leading Jewish publishing house in the Russian Empire. Competition emerged soon after, and by 1911 there were ten publishing houses operating in Warsaw. In addition to books, Progress published magazines and yearbooks. The literary magazine Eyropeishe Literatur, edited by Avrom Reyzen, which began appearing in January 1910 and continued as a weekly magazine, specialized in high literary works translated from various European languages. With the decline of the magazine, Reyzen included in it also original Yiddish works of modern writers; but publication was discontinued after the 39th issue. The Yearbook Lidskis Familien Kalendar, which appeared in the years 1908-9 and 1909–10, suggesting that "scientific and literary articles, poems, stories, biographies, jokes, anecdotes, important statistics and useful information needed in every home and family". Other publications were Yor-Bukh "Progress", Dos Yidishe Vort, Kunst un Leben, Dos Yor and the anthology Fraye Erd, all edited by Reyzen; the anthology of literary criticism Der Yunger Gayst, edited by Noach Pryłucki, the literary anthology Yudish edited by Y.L. Peretz and special booklets for the holidays.
In 1910, towards the 75th anniversary of Mendele Mocher Sforim, Lidski and the Vilnius publisher Shlomo Sreberk purchased the printing rights for the complete works of Mendele and founded Mendele Publishing, dedicated to the publishing of his complete body of works in Yiddish and other languages.
In the same year Mordecai Kaplan's small publishing house “HaShakhar” merged into Lidski's Progress.
Partner in the publishing syndicate "Central"
In 1911 the cooperation between Lidski, Sreberk and Kaplan raised a notch, giving rise to the publishing syndicate "Central", which united some of the largest Yiddish and Hebrew publishers in the Russian Empire. In addition to Lidski's "Progress", Kaplan's "HaShakhar" and Sreberk's "S. Sreberk" the publishing house incorporated Ben Avigdor's Hebrew publishing company “Tushiya” and Benjamin Szymin's "B. Szymin" . The Yiddish department in Central was led mainly by Lidski, whose editor was the writer David Kassel. The Hebrew department was directed by Ben Avigdor.The unified publishing company, situated on 7 Nowolipki St., published works of the greatest Yiddish and Hebrew writers, historians and pedagogues, as well as a series of children's books, a series of books for young adults and textbooks and readers. Central was the first Jewish publishing house to establish ties with Jewish communities outside of Russia and disseminate its books worldwide. Apart from books, it published various printed matter, such as a calendar depicting paintings of biblical scenes and photographs of the Land of Israel and famous figures etc., which was popular throughout the Jewish world for more than a quarter century, and Passover Haggadot and artistic Shana tova greeting cards, which enjoyed success.
In 1912 Central's subsidiary Ahisefer, a Hebrew publishing house, was founded, with the initiative of Tushiya owners Ben-Avigdor and Jacob Ramberg. In the same year Ahisefer released the literary collection Netivot. At the beginning of the year 1914, Central took under its wings the issuance of the common Yiddish daily Der fraynd in Warsaw. With the outbreak of World War I the company's operations ceased.
Final years
From the establishment of the association, Lidski's publishing endeavors were done through Central, but the company discontinued operations at the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914. In 1915, during the German occupation, Lidski founded a new independent publishing house named Yudish, which soon became the most active Yiddish publisher in Warsaw. The Yudish publishing house operated until 1920, and published several dozen major works, mainly translated fiction: Rousseau's Confessions, Tolstoy's Childhood, stories by Mark Twain, Guy de Maupassant's Strong as Death, One Thousand and One Nights, Memoirs and Articles by Vladimir Medem, Vladimir Korolenko's Tales of Cyberia and more. In addition to these, it published original and translated nonfiction books, and in 1920 it released the dramatic collection Di Eyropeishe Bine, edited by Zalmen Zylbercweig, which offered a selection of European plays translated into Yiddish.After the war, around the year 1919, Lidski purchased with Ben-Avigdor and his partners Kh. Berman and A. Kagan the big, old Vilnius printing and publishing house Rosenkranz and Shriftsetzer.
While in Vilnius in the summer of 1921 for handling the business of his new purchase, Lidski fell ill and died suddenly on June 1, at 52 years old. His body was brought to Warsaw and was buried in the Warsaw Jewish cemetery at a funeral with numerous participants. On his tombstone was engraved the inscription: "Ferleger un freynd fun dem Yidishn Bukh", and on both sides of it are carved images of book spines. He left behind his wife and daughter Alia. In his will he left a considerable amount to charity, and ordered to provide all the writers whose books were published by Yudish the stereotypes of their books.
Lidski's widow, Reytze Lidski née Hurwitz, died in the city of Otwock near Warsaw in December 1936 at the age of 65, after a long and serious illness, and was buried there. At her death she left her daughter and son-in-law.
The brother of Lidski's wife, Samuel Leib Hurwitz, was a socialist activist and a writer, one of the pioneers of Poale Zion, folklorist, publicist, and editor in Russia and the United States.