SOURCE: "Cedars of Lebanon: An Appreciation of I. L. Peretz," in Commentary, Vol. 27, No. 6, June, 1959, pp. 523-26.

In the following excerpt, Niger gives an overview of Peretz's contributions to Yiddish literature.

May 18, 1952, marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Yitzchak Leybush Peretz—poet, storyteller, dramatist, essayist, journalist, editor.

Peretz's work became familiar to readers of Hebrew as early as the 70's and 80's of the 19th century; in 1888 he began to publish in Yiddish and rapidly assumed a position of leadership in Yiddish literature as an inspiring force. However, Peretz never identified wholly either with the Hebraists or with the Yiddishists; he had written in Yiddish before 1888, and he continued to employ Hebrew to achieve certain of his literary goals after that date. For Peretz had too many intellectual interests, was too manysided a man, too dynamic an artist and thinker, and, regardless of his social democratic...