Alter Esselin

Who was Alter Esselin?

Alter Esselin, was a Russian-born American poet who wrote in the Yiddish language. He was born in Tchernigov, Russia on April 23, 1889 and died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 22, 1974. In fifty years of his life, he wrote and had published several hundred poems in such publications as Di goldene keyt, Di veg, Kundus, The Zukunft or Di Tsukunft and many others.

His work is discussed in Sol Liptzin's A History of Yiddish Literature and is included in Nachman Mayzel’s America in Yiddishen Vort.

Three books of his poetry were published. The first was Knoytn in 1927; The second, Unter der last, in 1936, and the third, Lider fun a mdbarnik in 1954 for which The Jewish Book Council gave him The Harry Kovner Award as the best collection of Yiddish poetry of the year, in 1955.

Esselin’s long poem "Proletarier" was published in the July 12, 1924 issue of the left wing newspaper Morgen Freiheit and in the January 19, 1925 issue the editor, Moissaye Joseph Olgin, announced that Esselin’s poem had been awarded the first place prize in the Freiheit’s international competition.