Yankev Glatshteyn (Jacob Glatstein) was born in Lublin, Poland on August 20, 1896. On his mother’s side were a long line of rabbis and his father’s family consisted of men of enlightened orthodoxy and musical endeavor. Glatstein possessed a strong love for music and believed his gift for and love of poetry was tied to his love and appreciation for music as well. Until the age of sixteen Glatstein received solid religious and traditional schooling, since his father believed in excellent education and paid a large part of his salary for Jacob’s schooling. His father also introduced him to secular schooling through private tutors. His father loved Yiddish literature and introduced his son to famous writers such as Perets, Sholem-Aleykhem, and Reyzen. Jacob was immediately fascinated. He began to write himself, and began to do so in Yiddish. By the age of thirteen, Jacob travelled to Warsaw to meet Y.L. Perets and other members of Perets’s salon in order to share his writing with them.

In 1914 due to the increasing anti-semitism in Lublin, Jacob’s family decided to send him to New York to live with his uncle. While he struggled to support himself working in various sweatshops and face the challenges of learning English Jacob stopped writing for a time. Scholars note that a possible reason for this was his detachment from Poland (particularly during WWI when he could not make contact often) and his yearning for the accolades that he no longer received as he had when a boy in his Jewish community.

In 1918, Jacob decided to enter New York University Law School. One of Jacob’s classmates was Nokhem Borekh Minkov who would later be a theoretical leader (along with Glatstein) of a new Yiddish poetic group called In zikh (Inside the self). Minkov introduced Glatstein to the active existence of a Yiddish writing environment within the United States. These writers consciously chose to write in Yiddish and did so with fervor. Jacob began to write again. Glatstein, like most writers, found it difficult to publish at first, but found excellent support from the older writers with which he surrounded himself. Glatstein realized his law career was not in his destiny and after failing several exams in his final year, he was content to never aim to obtain a degree. In 1919, Jacob was published for the first time in the journal Poezye. Immediately his syle was recognized as unique and experimental; it relied upon creative word play, which he would eventually be widely recognized for.

Jacob married in 1919 and when his wife, Nettie, became pregnant in 1923 he was deteremined to earn a real income. He attempted teaching, and after that turned sour, he began in the newspaper business. At first he was embarrassed by this line of work for a real poet and hid behind pseudonyms, but later he would come to recognize journalism as a necessary art form. Along with continuing his poetry, Jacob wrote many short stories under the pseudonym of his mother’s maiden name. In the early 1920’s Jacob began to edit a monthly literary journal with several of his peers.

The topic of much, if not all, of his work was a product of his time in Lublin and the people he had left there. In 1934 Jacob returned to Poland for a brief visit. He witnessed with his own eyes the worsening Jewish situation. The visit so impacted him that he turned it into two autobiographical novels. During WWII, Glatstein continued his journalist career. He had a weekly column in a New York Yiddish newspaper. In the mid-1950’s he became editor of the World Jewish Congress Monthly. Glatstein’s increasing respect for journalism was due to his sense that poets must be connected with reality and with the problems of modern society. He incorporated this viewpoint in much of his poems, which focused on the plight of the Jews within the larger world. Glatstein was once quoted as saying, “The Yiddish poet must become the aestehtic chronicler of what happened [the Holocaust], and he must fix it for all time. In comparison with what we have hitherto regarded as poetry, the responsibility of a Yiddish poet today, it seems to me, is a fearsome responsibility.”

Glatstein was a part of the In Zikh movement mentioned above. The poetic movement, begun in the 1920’s believed in poetry for art and beauty’s sake and not for political or social purposes. By Glatstein’s later life, he had strayed from his original stance and instead immersed himself in writing in response to Jewish social problems. By the end of his life, though he was an American, he was known as a major literary spokesperson for Jewish nationalism. Many critics have argued that Glatstein’s fundamental change came as a result of the Holocaust. Before writing about the Holocaust Glatstein’s work (according to most critics) demonstrated a profound aura of isolation and helplessness. The narrators of most of his early works are self-centered, frightened, and isolated. They are threatened by, confused, and angered by society in general and specific individuals. Glatstein’s Holocaust work reveals an active, confident and responsible individual, though the sadness, guilt, and confusion continue to be present. This confidence was growing even before the Holocaust occurred, perhaps a result of age and maturity.

Glatstein died on his birthday, after celebrations were made in his honor, in New York City in 1971.