Shirim [poems]

<<Accompanied by:>> Miriam Elias’s well-worn performer’s working copy (pp. 74) of the script of Bein Shnei Olamot (The Dybbuk), interleaved and heavily annotated in several hands, including several illustrations (presumably set designs). Also included are Elias’s handwritten Hebrew notes from a series of lecture on the Stanislavski acting method delivered in October of 1917 by Evgenii Vakhtangov, student of Stanislavski and director of HaBimah. <<And:>> Miriam Elias’s autograph manuscript notebook (pp. 185). The present lot of three literary items traverses the intersection of the lives of the preeminent early 20th century Jewish-Russian poet Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934) and the Yiddish and Hebrew stage actress Miriam Elias (b. 1897-?) The two first met in 1921 during rehearsals for the Hebrew language production of Anski’s “The Dybbuk,” which premiered at the HaBimah theater in Moscow in 1922, starring Hanna Rovina as Leah, and Miriam Elias as Chanan. Bialik who had translated the play into Hebrew, acknowledged Elias’s performance by presenting her with this deluxe copy of his collected poems. The warm inscription reads: “To Miriam Elias, a daughter of Miriam, the original dancer of Israel, Moscow, 5281 (=1921), in remembrance, Chaim Nachman Bialik.” Bialik soon left Russia for the Land of Israel where he was immediately recognized as a celebrated literary figure. To this day, Bialik is recognized as Israel’s national poet and his poems, and the songs based on them, have become an essential part of the culture of modern Israel. In 1934, following Bialik’s death, a memorial service was held in his honor at New York’s Carnegie Hall. According to a contemporary newspaper report: “The near capacity crowd heard a wide range of speakers and then listened to…Jewish actress Miriam Elias recite two of Bialik’s poems including “When I am Dead.” It seems that Miriam Elias prepared for this recitation using this very volume, given to her by the great poet himself, as the pages on which the poem here appears are noticeably well thumbed.