Call Number:

SCRC 240

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

4 linear feet (4 boxes)

Language:

English and Yiddish

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], N. David Korman Papers, SCRC 240, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

1927-1979 (inclusive) and 1960-1979 (bulk)

Creator:

Korman, N. David, 1901-1981

Form:

Clippings, Correspondence, Manuscripts, Photographs, Poems, Publications (documents), and Scores (documents for music)

Abstract:

N. (Nathan) David Korman (ןאַמראָק דוד נתן), also known as Nissen Dovid Korman and N. D. Korman, was a Jewish poet, born in Radom, Poland, on October 15, 1901. Korman worked as a hat maker from the age of 12 until he was drafted into the Polish Army to fight against the Bolsheviks in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919. Korman served a three month prison sentence in Poland for his membership in the young workers organization, Poale-Zion, before immigrating to Cuba in 1926. While in Cuba, Korman worked in a shoe factory and composed poems that idealized the proletariat or working class. Along with the editors of the semi-weekly publication Havaner Leben, Y. O. Pines and Eliezer Aronowsky, Korman formed the core of a literary group known as 'Young Cuba.' Korman settled in Philadelphia after leaving Cuba in 1928, operating a shoe store in West Philadelphia until his retirement in 1967. Korman published three volumes of poetry during this lifetime, ערד אינזלשער אף (Af inzlshler erd) published in Havana, Cuba, in 1927, ארױף בארג (Barg aroyf, 1943), and יאָרן און טעג (Teg un yorn, 1970). Korman married Tillie (Tamar) on October 15, 1926, with whom he had one child, Dolores. N. David Korman died June 9, 1981.

The N. David Korman Papers consist of typescript and handwritten drafts of Korman's poetry and prose, written after the publication of his second volume of poetry. The bulk of the collection is in Yiddish with some materials in English, mainly translations of Korman's poems and longer writings. Topics or themes explored in his poems and longer writings vary, but include the seasons, tributes to historical figures and contemporaries, the state of Israel, the people of Radom, Poland, and works on other Yiddish writers such as proletarian poet Aaron Kurtz, Chaver-Paver, Zishe Weinper, Leivick Halpern, Berish Eppelbaum, and Sholem Aleichem. Other materials of note include Korman's memoir detailing his time in the Polish Army beginning in 1919. Manuscripts of Korman's earliest work written during his time in Cuba and after his arrival in America up through the mid-1940s are not part of the collection.

The collection is arranged into 2 series as follows:

• Series 1: Manuscripts, 1945-1981, undated
• Subseries 1.1: Poetry, 1945-1981, undated
• Subseries 1.2: Essays, short stories, and eulogies, 1961-1980, undated
• Subseries 1.3: English translations, 1973-1979, undated
• Series 2: Correspondence, printed material, and photographs, 1926-1980