DYMOV, OSSIP

DYMOV, OSSIP (pen name of Joseph Perelman; 1878–1959), Russian and Yiddish author and playwright. Dymov was born in Bialystok, attended a Russian gymnasium and the Forest Institute in St. Petersburg, and at 16 began publishing humoresques in Russian satiric journals. The first collection of his stories, Solntsevorot ("The Sun Cycle," 1905), artistically blending symbolism, irony, and wit, placed him in the mainstream of Russian literature. The motif of Jewish suffering became predominant in his plays Slushay, Izrail\! ("Hear, Israel\!" 1907; Heb., 1913) and Vechny strannik ("Eternal Wanderer," 1913), which were staged in Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages in Europe and in the U.S., bringing Dymov substantial fame. He settled in New York in 1913 and over decades contributed hundreds of stories and humoresques to the Yiddish press and wrote dramas and comedies for the Yiddish theater. He also reworked classical texts for Yiddish screenplays, published two volumes of memoirs, and worked in Yiddish radio. His most popular play, Yoshke Muzikant ("Yoskhe the Musician") is included in the volume Dramen un Dertseylungen ("Dramas and Stories," 1943). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: LNYL, 2 (1958), 502–4. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Z. Zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater, 1 (1931), 557–62; The Encyclopedia of Russian Jewry, 1 (1994), 448–9.