Ovsei Driz

Born May 16 (29), 1908, in the village of Krasnoe, now Vinnitsa Oblast. Died Feb. 27, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet Jewish poet.

Driz studied at the Kiev School of Art and served with the frontier forces from 1934 to 1947. He is the author of the collections of poems The Bright Life (1930), The Might of Steel (1934), and The Fourth String (1969). Many of his books of verse have been published in Russian, including The Jolly Baker (foreword by L. Kassil’, 1959), The Height of the Summer (1961), The Green Tailors (foreword by M. Svetlov, 1963), The Tree Has Arrived (1966), The Multicolored Boy (1968), and The Silversmithy (1970). Driz wrote many children’s books. Although the hero in Driz’ poetry is wise and resourceful, he is also a dreamer. Driz’ poems have been translated into the languages of several peoples of the USSR and into foreign languages.