Ludwig, Reuben
LUDWIG, REUBEN
LUDWIG, REUBEN (1895–1926), Yiddish poet. Born in Lipowitz, Ukraine, Ludwig immigrated to New York in 1910. Suffering from tuberculosis, he moved in his twenties to the drier areas of the American Southwest, while making a meteoric appearance among the *In-Zikh group of Yiddish poets. His poems appeared in the major Yiddish periodicals, emphasizing the imminence of death, expressing sadness and hopelessness while longing for joy and glorious adventure. His Gezamlte Lider ("Collected Poems," 1927) include songs of the Rockies and of the American Southwest, then still undiscovered by Yiddish poets. He sympathized with and wrote about various minorities, including Indians, Mexicans, Chinese, and African-Americans.
bibliography:
Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 90ff.; lnyl, 5 (1963), 6ff. add. bibliography: Z. Weinper, Yidishe Shriftshteler, 1 (1953), 136–39; B.Y. Bialostotsky, Kholem un Vor (1956), 112–13; R.R. Wisse, A Little Love in Big Manhattan (1988).
[Sol Liptzin /
Marc Miller (2nd ed.)]