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Born on 29 April 1884 in Gross Radomysl, Galicia. He
learned in cheders, kloyz, and various bet-hamedrashim
(houses of study). In 1900 he began to write Hebrew
songs, and Yiddish in 1904, a year after his arrival in
America.
E., one of the founders of
the group, "Yunge," entered a prominent place in the
modern Yiddish lyrics. He published several larger
translations and issued three books: "From My Summer"
(1922), "The Song of Hirsh" (1944), and "From Our
Spring" (1954).
Since 1918 an editorial
member of "Tog." then the "Daily Morning Journal."
In the journal "Inzl" (N'
10, 1925 and N' 1, 1926) there was published is "R'
Asher Chona," a drama in four acts.
About the drama, speaking
about dramas by another writer, H(erman) Gold writes:
"In the beginning, there comes forth a
breath of fresh earth, of virgin land and more than that
it is the earth of Galicia. However, alas, the stage
management is stereotypical, self-effacing and more than
that it appears passé. It bears the format of a drama
that is and is capable of evolving. The drama seems to
already know that needs to become more, and
that eventually it will become salacious, but all that
is hidden under the guise of technique. The theme needs
to be better controlled. It appears that Mr. Eisland
knows this, but certainly the village in this play does
not, ... The more we penetrate it, the more faint the
color of the people becomes. Exactly as though he had
used sandpaper instead of ink.
The management of the
drama is not inspired... because there is no
perceptible eye. Finally, it is as though it has
only recently been borrowed from someone else, but
without really being seen at all. Over all it feels
like reconstructed sentences, and as if bad wooden
actors are standing and are acting as if they were
human.
If Mr. Eisland wanted to
merely dramatize something original, something he
had heard someone else talk about, the play is none
the less incomplete. We cannot see here even the
smallest intention for something iniquitous, which
can be called drama."
E. was ill during his last
years and withdrew from his journalistic activity. He
settled in Miami Beach, where he appeared to publish his
last book, and there he passed away on 18 June 1955.
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"Lexicon of the New
Yiddish Literature," Vol. 1, New York, [1956], p.
17.
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H. Gold -- Ekskursyes
in der yidisher dramaturgye, "Unzer bukh," New York,
N' 1, 1926.
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