Simha BenZion ^People

S. BenZion's life and works thus fall into two periods: his early years in the Diaspora and his later life in Palestine. Playing center stage to literary audiences and educators in his early adulthood, he was achief storyteller of the shtetl, describing ty- pical experiences, settings, and varieties of characters. His style balances mockery and criticism with softness and compassion, while his plot lines tell the fate of individuals worn down by the difficulties ofsurvival. His famous novella Nefesh retsutsah is an indictment of traditional heder education. Another work on shtetl life,Le-hayim shel parnasah (For a Prosperous Life, 1913), shows how the tensions associated with mak- ing a living lead to humiliation and moral degradation. Ben-Tsiyon's prose exemplifies realism and demonstrates the flexible strata of the Hebrew language. Unfortunately, his rich linguistic infusion seemed affected to some of his audience, creating a barrier for the generation of readers that followed his own.In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, he published Kol ketavav (All His Writings) in two volumes, and when the British occupied Palestine, he edited the literarysupplement Shai shel sifrut (The Gift of Literature), which was attached to the daily hadashot meha-arets (1918-1919), and Ha-Ezrah, an anthology dedicated to literature, science, and contemporary questions (1919-1920). He also served on the editorial board of Bustenai, an organ ofthe Farmers Union.