Background
Leib Naidus was born on November 6, 1890 in Grodno into an intelligent Jewish family of Isaac and Rakhil Naidus. He spent his childhood at his father’s estate Kustin (Bialystok region, Poland).
Lejb Najdus, Naydus
Leib Naidus was born on November 6, 1890 in Grodno into an intelligent Jewish family of Isaac and Rakhil Naidus. He spent his childhood at his father’s estate Kustin (Bialystok region, Poland).
After graduating from the Grodno primary school in 1901, he went to study at commercial high school in Radom (Poland). Later he transferred to the Bialystok non-classical secondary school. In 1905, he was expelled due to his support of socialist views and participation in the revolutionary activities. Naidus went to study to Kaunas high school, but in 1907 he was expelled from it due to the same reasons. He participated in demonstrations, illegal meetings, distributing illegal literature. In 1908 he entered Vilnius non-classical high school and graduated from it in 1911.
Naidus’s first poem in Yiddish was published in Warsaw journal "Roman Cajtung" in 1907. Soon, he became popular and was published in different Jewish editions of Warsaw, Vilnius and Russian cities. He wrote in Russian and Polish as well. Naidus began writing in Yiddish at an important time for the Jewish literature. His first poems were published when a monthly journal “Literarishe Monatschriften” began to be released in Vilnius. Leib returned to Grodno and got a permanent job in the Jewish journal "Life and knowledge." He earned for living from publishing his poems. At that period, Naidus established good relations with the teachers of the local secondary schools.
His first collection of poems "Lyrics" was published in 1915. The book revealed virtuosity in versification and was a manifestation of modern literary aestheticism. Naidus wrote poems, songs, essays, literary notes, translated from French and Russian into Yiddish such well-known poets and writers as Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rostand, Musset, Heine, Goethe, Mary Shelley, Pushkin, Lermontov. From 1916 to 1918, Naidus composed large poetry cycles and epic poems, where he expressed vitalism as his poetic philosophy.
Returning from a literary evening in a train, the poet contracted diphtheria, but he didn’t pay attention to it. When he went to the hospital, it was too late, and soon he died.
In 1905, Naidus was expelled from commercial high school in Radom due to his support of socialist views and participation in the revolutionary activities. Later in 1907, he was again expelled from the Kaunas high school, because of his active participation in demonstrations, illegal meetings, distributed illegal literature.