Uri Nissan Gnessin was born in Starodub, where his father was a rabbi. He left home at an early age, and moving from one yeshiva to the another, he developed a life-long friendship with a fellow Hebrew modernist author, Yosef Haim Brenner. His first published text was in 1904. In 1906 he co-founded the Hebrew language publishing house "Nisyonot" (Attempts), and after moving to London in 1907, he co-edited (with Brenner) Ha'Meorer, a Hebrew periodical. Following that he moved to Palestine but returned to Russia in 1908. Later he settled in Warsaw, where he died in 1913 of a heart attack. Gnessin wrote in a unique style of prose that was notable for its expressionistic language. Several Isr...