Beyond Sambation: Selected Essays and Editorials, 1928-1955

Ludwig Lewisohn wrote in the foreword to A. M. Klein's first book of poems, Hath Not a Jew..., that Klein was "the first contributor of authentic Jewish poetry to the English language." Indeed, Klein's impact on the Canadian literary scene, with his open exploration of Jewishness, paved the way for later Jewish writers such as Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler, Miriam Waddington, and Adele Wiseman. Born in the Ukraine, Abraham Moses Klein left at the age of one with his parents for Montreal, where he remained for the rest of his life. A brilliant student of orthodox background, he resisted family pressure to become a rabbi and enrolled at McGill University in 1926. In 1933 he graduated from the law school at the University of Montreal and established a practice. Deeply involved with the Jewish community, Klein early exhibited a commitment to the Zionist movement. From 1936 to 1937 he edited The Canadian Zionist and from 1939 to 1954 he held the editorship of The Canadian Jewish Chronicle. Most of Klein's work reveals his debt to James Joyce. His reliance upon Joycean allusions, multilingual puns, and complex metaphors is especially prevalent in The Rocking Chair (1948), considered by many to contain Klein's finest verse. These poems are somewhat of a departure from his earlier work, exemplified in Poems (1944), which is more traditional in theme and technique. Klein also wrote some short stories and a highly successful novel, The Second Scroll (1951). M. W. Steinberg is a Professor of English at the University of British Columbia Usher Caplan is an editor at the National Gallery of Canada.