ABSTRACT
Ayzik-Meir Dik or AMaD, as his favourite acronym proclaimed him on the title page of hundreds of story-books, was not only the earliest professional Yiddish writer—he was the first to earn a living from his pen—but also the first to write best-sellers. In Nesvyzius, Dik made the acquaintance of the local Catholic priest who taught him to read in German; he taught himself Polish and Russian. In this town, where Dik was virtually the only maskil, he became increasingly convinced of the necessity for making Jews critically aware of the superstition and primitivism that pervaded their traditional way of life. In almost all his work in Yiddish, Dik's plain purpose was to show Jewish people ways of equipping themselves to play a productive role in the modern world. In his lengthy introductions, and sometimes even in the middle of his stories, he offered thought-provoking opinions about contemporary jewish educational, cultural, social and moral life.
