From Plotzk to Boston : autograph manuscript

Item Information

Title:
From Plotzk to Boston : autograph manuscript
Description:
A 66-page letter, in Yiddish, written by Mary Antin in 1894 in Boston and sent to her uncle, Moshe Hayyim Weltman, in Polotsk (present day Belarus). The letter details the emigration of Antin and her family from Polotsk to the United States.
Creator:
Antin, Mary, 1881-1949
Former owner:
Antin, Rosemary
Binder:
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948
Former owner:
Weltman, Berl
Correspondent:
Weltman, Moshe
Name on Item:
written and sent to Russia in 1894 ; brought back in 1910 ; put between covers for safekeeping in 1914 by brother John F. Grabau
Date:
1894
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Manuscripts, Yiddish
Signed bindings
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Special Collections, Rare Books
Subjects:
Antin, Mary, 1881-1949--Biography
Jews--Massachusetts--Boston--Biography
Jews--Belarus--Biography
Boston (Mass.)--Emigration and immigration--Biography
Belarus--Emigration and immigration--Biography
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Extent:
1 volume (1 unnumbered leaf, 5 leaves, 68 (i.e. 66) pages) ; 21 x 14 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/9w034s530
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
Boston
Language:
Yiddish
Notes:
Title from hand-written English title page.
First numbered sequence (5 leaves) comprised of a 1914 English introduction, in Mary Antin's hand, titled "History of this manuscript." The introduction describes the circumstances of the letter's original composition in 1894, its rediscovery in 1910, and its relationship to an original draft destroyed by Antin just after publication. The main body of the Yiddish letter begins on page 1 (second count) and is 66 pages long.
Sent to Moshe Hayyim Weltman in 1894, thence passed to various family members in Russia. Recovered by Mary Antin during a visit to the Polotsk region in 1910, when it was found in the possession of her uncle Berl Weltman in Vilnius. Apparently bound for Antin by her brother-in-law, John Grabau.
A pencil inscription in a different Yiddish hand, roughly translated as "Send to Schloyme [i.e. Solomon Weltman?] right away" follows the final line of Antin's letter.
An adapted version of this letter, apparently based on the original draft from which the present copy is primarily derived, was published in 1899 in English under the title "From Plotzk to Boston."
Notes (acquisition):
Acquired from Rosemary Antin in 1950 (acknowledgement of acquisition by BPL inscribed in pencil on front flyleaf).
Notes (date):
Date and place of production from the 1914 English introduction (pages 1 to 5).
Notes (object):
Pagination: (title page and English introduction) [1], 5 leaves; (Yiddish letter) 22, [1], 23-32, [1], 33-37, 36-55, 60-68 p. Many pages misnumbered. Blank pages between 22/23 and 32/33. Contents and pagination run from right to left.
Bound in blue goatskin paneled and tooled in gilt, signed "Grabau" on rear turn-in.
Notes (publications):
Transcribed and translated in: Sunny Yudkoff, "Translation of Mary Antin's Yiddish Letter (Precursor to From Plotzk to Boston)," Studies in American Jewish Literature 32, no. 1 (2013): 36-98.
Identifier:
06_01_016828
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Am. 178
Barcode:
39999091004752