Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

13 Notebooks of Unpublished Manuscripts by Haim Hazaz [UNIQUE]

Hazaz, Haim

Softcovers. The sizes of the notebooks range from 3 1/4 x 5" to 5 1/2 x 8 1/2". All notebooks are bound with paper covers, most in portrait orientation. 12 of the notebooks are top-bound, with the smallest notebook is disbound and missing its covers.

The contents of the notebooks contain mostly notes, outlines, and sketches for stories and brief plays, most likely dating not before 1920, written mostly in Hebrew and Russian. The notebooks have text front-to-back, as well as back-to-front. The author's hand is often difficult to decipher. The collection, at least partially, can be connected with work he did while in Turkey, as well as in Palestine, and possibly Paris. More than 300 pages of text in all.

Partial list of notable and/or recognizable content from the collection:

- Larger notebook #1 (stag and pen ink stamp on the front cover): contains sketches and notes related to a work titled (or set in) "Kineret" (Sea of Galilee).

- Larger notebook #2: (1) the first page is headed in Hebrew “ha-Shekhunah ha-‘aniyah” [The Poor Neighborhood”] followed by the text of a story in Russian; (2) a lengthy poem in Hebrew in two columns, opening with the words “Partsufe Bene Adam” [Human Faces]; (3) notes or text in Russian but headed in Hebrew with the word “ha-Germani” [The German]; (4) further alternating double-column Hebrew text and Russian notes.

- Notebook headed on the cover “Mesilah hadashah ba-yam ha-shahor” [Mesilah Hadashah on the Black Sea]. Hazaz left Russia from Crimea in 1920 during the Civil War and landed first in Istanbul. He became a teacher at the “Mesilah Hadashah” agricultural settlement, outside of Istanbul, which had been established by the Jewish Colonization Association. The first heading in the notebook reads “ba-Moshavah” [In the Settlement] and indicates a story set in the Ottoman territory with some Yiddish-speaking characters. It also includes a glossary of words in Basque.

- Notebook headed on the cover “Sefarad” [Spain]. This notebook contains notes on medieval Spanish and converso Jewry, and it has Spanish vocabulary throughout. Some of the notes are in Russian. It contains an interesting reference to the French Huguenot soldier and poet Agrippa d’Aubigné, exemplifying an exilic theme.

- Notebook with title on the inside cover “Abraham Mizrahi”. This notebook (front-to-back) contains notes for a story about the titular character. Back-to-front contains separate notes.

- Notebook headed “mi-Yidish ha-Yareah” [(from Yiddish) The Moon]. The notebook (front-to-back) contains notes for a work ostensibly entitled “ha-Yareah” (the Moon). Turning back-to-front there are notes and sketches for a work entitled “ha-Talmidah” (The Female Student).

- Notebook containing sketches for two works. One set in 1920 takes up the first 9 pages of the notebook. Following that is a sketch headed (in Hebrew) “Ivan Neter” but containing notes predominantly in Russian. (There is much bleeding from the text’s blue ink.)

- Notebook headed “הפסו” containing (front-to-back) names, a scenario, and notes, first in Russian, then in Hebrew; (back-to-front) the notebook contains sketch in Russian titled “Horses” with a Romani word list at the end.

- Notebook containing a story entitled “הזקנה לאפיו” .


Text throughout printed predominantly in cursive Hebrew script with some Russian, in cursive Cyrillic script. Some notebooks are soiled with water stains and rippling. Texts still legible throughout. In good- condition overall. g-. Item #53784

Name in Hebrew: חיים הזז

Haim Hazaz (1898-1973) was an acclaimed Israeli writer, known as a novelist, poet and playwright. His highly regarded body of work earned him the two highest prizes in the Hebrew language: the Bialik Prize (twice, 1942 and 1970) and the Israel Prize in Literature (one of the first two recipients of such an award, in 1953).

Bibliographic reference: Bibliyografyah muʻeret shel kitve Hayim Hazaz (Jerusalem: ha-Universitah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim: Yad le-moreshet Hayim Hazaz, 1992).

Price: $12,000.00