Catalogue

That the name Moses Rosenkranz does not ring a bell with literary scholars should not come as a surprise, given that he was of Jewish German origin and born in the easternmost reaches of the Austrian Empire, in what is today Romania. But Rosenkranz's poetry and this "autobiographical fragment" (written in 1958 and first published in German as Kindheit in 2003) are sufficiently compelling to warrant much greater attention to the poet among Anglophones. Dollenmayer (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) offers an exquisite translation of both the memoir and the introductory essay (part of the German edition) by the distinguished German writer and scholar Matthias Huff, making this a readable, entertaining chronicle of Rosenkranz's early years of personal conflict and strife at a time when Europe itself was in turmoil. Complete with engaging details of his everyday life, the book offers a colorful depiction of Rosenkranz's quest for identity in a society that held him at arm's length for being who he was--both a Jew and in a linguistic minority in his own home community. Rosenkranz speaks of an early awareness of his circumstances and surroundings and recounts with clarity the incidents that defined his personality and his worldly insights. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and general readers. C. L. Dolmetsch Marshall University