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{{Short description|Polish-American Jewish literary critic and author}}
'''Yehiel Yeshaya Trunk''' ({{Langx|he|יחיאל ישעיהו טרונק}}), better known by his pen name '''Y. Y. Trunk''', was a Jewish literary critic and author. He is best known for his criticism of [[Sholem Aleichem]], his imaginative reworkings of [[Jewish folklore]], and his collections of humorous stories about [[Jewish humor#Chełm|Chełm]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Rogovin |first=Or |date=2009 |title=Chelm as Shtetl: Y. Y. Trunk's Khelemer Khakhomim |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pft.2009.29.2.242 |journal=Prooftexts |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=242–272 |doi=10.2979/pft.2009.29.2.242 |jstor=10.2979/pft.2009.29.2.242 |s2cid=163047588 |issn=0272-9601}}</ref>
== Life ==
Trunk was born in [[Osmólsk Górny|Osmólsk Górny, Poland]] to a wealthy Jewish family, and was raised in [[Łódź]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sherman |first=Joseph |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/988939783 |title=The Jewish Pope : myth, diaspora and Yiddish literature |date=2003 |publisher=European Humanities Research Centre |others=University of Oxford. European Humanities Research Centre |isbn=978-1-351-19750-2 |location=Oxford |oclc=988939783}}</ref> His mother's family were successful landowners, while his paternal side included the [[tzadik]] [[Shayele Kutner]] and his grandfather, the rabbi of [[Kutno]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=YIVO {{!}} Trunk, Yekhiel Yeshaye |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Trunk_Yekhiel_Yeshaye |access-date=2023-02-15 |website=yivoencyclopedia.org}}</ref> He received both a secular and religious education, initially writing in Hebrew from 1905 but shifting to Yiddish from the influence of [[I. L. Peretz]] by 1908.<ref name=":0" /> Under the editorial pen of Peretz, he began publishing fiction, prose, poetry, and essays in 1908. Trunk married Khane Prywes, the granddaughter of wealthy industrialist Isaiah Prywes, and was able to write in financial security.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trunk |first=Yeḥiel Yeshaia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HGlJQedyg8C |title=Poyln: My Life Within Jewish Life in Poland : Sketches and Images |date=2007-01-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-9330-1 |pages=ix-xiii |language=en}}</ref> They traveled extensively throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia, spending twelve months in Palestine from 1913 to 1914. His time in Palestine became the basis of his book ''Feygnboymer'' (''Fig Trees''), published in 1922.
In 1925, Trunk moved to Warsaw and became head of the Yiddish [[PEN club]] in 1936.
Following the [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, Trunk and his wife fled eastward, into Siberia, Japan, and eventually the United States. Arriving in New York City, his wife worked in a sweatshop, supporting his writing once again. After Khane's death in 1944, Trunk lived in the [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]] neighborhood of Manhattan for the remainder of his life. Between 1951 and 1960, he published another eight books on a variety of subjects.<ref name=":1" />
Trunk's corpus of works ranged widely, from novellas and short story collections to essays and non-fiction books about socialism, Jewish culture, and writers, foreign and domestic, including [[Hersh Dovid Nomberg]] and [[Oscar Wilde]]. Following his arrival in the United States, he wrote a seven-volume autobiography, ''[[Poyln]]'' (''Poland''), that included collections of literature, criticism, and Chełm-related folklore.
== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book |url=https://worldcat.org/title/48422930 |title=Feygenboymer : un and[ere] dertseylungen |year=1922 |language=yi |oclc=48422930}}
* {{Cite book |last=Trunk |first=Yehiel Yeshaya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HGlJQedyg8C |title=Poyln |publisher=University of Toronto |year=2007 |isbn=9780802093301 |editor-last=Shapiro |editor-first=Robert Moses |translator-last=Clarke |translator-first=Anna |editor-last2=Wróbel |editor-first2=Piotr}}
== References ==
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[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1961 deaths]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Polish Jews]]
[[Category:People from Łódź]]
[[Category:Writers from Warsaw]]
[[Category:People from Washington Heights, Manhattan]]
[[Category:Yiddish-speaking people]]