Surviving Despair

About the Book

Comments on books by Herman Taube:

"His vision roams over many continents, countless diverse subjects, and a variety of characters. Everywhere he finds a word, an expression, a sound, a thought, a proper noun and together they start singing and form a poem. These poems belong to the never-to be-forgotten witness literature of our time."

-  ELIE WIESEL

"Some poets make of this world a tragedy. Others, like Herman Taube, do not. They look for every spark of light. It is not that he comes singing happy songs — there is a great deal of sadness in his poems. But there is a wonderful strength that rises out of the sadness. But that is not all of this work — for his is not only our poet of the Holocaust in the way that Elie Wiesel is; but he is the poet of the ordinary human being — you and me — who has been to hell, whose life has been irrevocably shaped by the Jewish experience of World War II, but who lives in the world of today, like to rest of us."

-  MERRILL LEFFLER

"His collective works, which span decades, continents and cultures, constitute an eloquent and powerful chronicle of the Jewish experience in our time. It is a record at once intensely personal and universal. And it is, as is his life, a voluble and vibrant legacy, a model of the highest standard for Jewish artists of all ages."

-  MICHA LEV

"Herman Taube has the unique ability to make inanimate objects come alive. Taube is not a magician, but a sensitive author and poet who uses words and images to coax life out of a universe that others overlook. Every words and, at times, each syllable that he writes, reverberates with the consciousness of Yiddishe Neshome (Jewish soul). He is an observer of all aspects of life, from the perspectives of Jewish values and outlook."

-  STUART G. WEINBLATT

About the Author