Desires (White Goat Press) by Celia Dropkin, translated by Anita Norich, is one of those rare—and yet somehow all too common—works of Yiddish literature: a book by a well-known writer that almost no one knew existed. The only novel by Celia (Tsilye) Dropkin (1887–1956), Desires originally appeared in 68 consecutive installments between March 31 and June 6, 1934, in the Jewish Daily Forward, or Forverts, but was never published as a book until now. Discovered (or rediscovered) by scholar and translator Anita Norich as part of her research into Yiddish novels by women, Desires sheds light on Dropkin’s more famous poetic work, provides a fascinating psychological and sociological study of its characters and their world, and stands as a unique contribution to American Yiddish literature of the 1930s.
Dropkin, a poet known for exploring sexual and erotic themes, was born in Babruysk, a city in what is now Belarus, and immigrated to New York in 1912, where she adopted Yiddish as her primary literary language. In the 1930s she turned to prose, publishing this novel and ten short stories that appeared in the journal Tsukunft (Future). In Desires, as in much of her work, Dropkin reflects on the internal and external conflicts of love, domesticity, and the erotic life. Through characters carefully drawn from her own immigrant milieu, Dropkin addresses the yearnings of both the body and mind, the tension between excitement and security, and the conflicting impulses that are part of the human condition.
Four Questions
- Dropkin was better known as a poet than as a prose writer. Does reading Desires make you want to read, or reread, her poetry? How do you think it compares to her prose?
- Desires was published serially in the newspaper, and the original dates of publication are preserved as part of the translation. How does this affect the reading experience? How do you think serialization affected the composition of the novel?
- Dropkin’s prose style in Desires is straightforward, even simplistic. How do you think this complements, or contrasts with, the psychological portraits she paints of her characters?
- Dropkin’s depiction of 1930s American life can be surprising and even shocking at times. Does it conform to your expectations, or were there elements that surprised you?
Explore the Sections Below to Learn More about Celia Dropkin and Desires:
Read Dropkin’s Writing in Yiddish and English
Learn about Dropkin’s Life
Learn about Dropkin’s Work
Although Dropkin published widely as a poet, only a single volume of her poetry, In heysn vint (In a Hot Wind), was published in her lifetime. You can read that collection in our Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library.
A few of Dropkin’s poems and short stories have been published in translation over the years, but the main collection of her work in English is The Acrobat: Selected Poems of Celia Dropkin, with translations by Faith Jones, Jennifer Kronovet, and Samuel Solomon, and a foreword by Edward Hirsch. You can purchase The Acrobat from our bookstore.
Born in what is now Belarus in 1887, Dropkin immigrated to the United States in 1912, where she died in 1956. You can read more about Dropkin’s life in this biographical entry in the Jewish Women’s Encyclopedia, written by scholar Kathryn Hellerstein.
Over the years the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has conducted interviews with a number of Dropkin’s relatives and descendants, including her grandson Dan Dropkin, daughter-in-law Ruth Dropkin, granddaughter Elizabeth Starčević, and grandson Kenneth Levinson.
Listen to Dan Dropkin recite part of a poem by his grandmother, Celia Dropkin:
Watch the full interview with Dan Dropkin
Dropkin’s daughter-in-law, Ruth (Warshavsky Zeitlin) Dropkin, speaks about Dropkin’s poetry:
Watch the full interview with Ruth (Warshavsky Zeitlin) Dropkin
Elizabeth Starčević, Dropkin’s granddaughter, speaks about discovering her grandmother’s poems:
Watch the full interivew with Elizabeth Starčević
Kenneth Levinson, Dropkin’s grandson, speaks about how his grandmother influenced his own identity:
Watch the full interview with Kenneth Levinson
When she died in 1956 Dropkin was honored by a short obituary in the New York Times, which recognized her as both an artist and a writer.
For a comprehensive introduction to Dropkin and her work, you can view our teaching resource kit, written and assembled by Anna Elena Torres.
One of Dropkin’s erstwhile champions in English has been scholar and translator Faith Jones. In this short essay, Jones argues the case for reading Dropkin and includes a translation of Dropkin’s poem “The Acrobat.”
You can also listen to an interview with Jones, and hear her recite a bit of Dropkin’s poetry, in this episode of The Shmooze podcast:
Another great essay about Dropkin’s work was published in 2017 by scholar Ruth Wisse in the Jewish Review of Books: “Funny How a Poem Can Get Under Your Skin.”
In addition to being a poet, Dropkin was also a painter, working with watercolors and oils. Here you can read about her work as a painter and view a selection of her paintings.
Join us for this Book Talk
Join us on Sunday, September 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET for an in-person and virtual book talk with scholar and translator Anita Norich.