A Dream

Abramek Koplowicz was born in Lodz, Poland, on Feb. 18, 1930. He had attended elementary school for only two years when he and his family were sent to the Lodz ghetto during World War II. It was during this time that young Abramek wrote "A Dream" as well as many other poems and plays. Abramek was forced to work in a shoe factory, but he entertained those around him with his imaginative stories. Abramek and his mother were both murdered in Auschwitz when Abramek was only 14 years old. Abramek’s father, who survived, suffered enormous guilt. He had been leaving Abramek at home while he went to work in the hopes of protecting him from the workhouse environment. One day he returned to find his boy was gone. He didn’t know that other parents had been hiding their children under their coats when they went to work to keep them close by. Thanks to Abramek’s step-brother, Eliezer “Lolek” Grynfeld, Abramek’s writings have been saved and translated with the hope that many more people will know his work and story.

"A Dream" includes English translations by Malgorzata Koraszewska and Sarah Lawson of five poems by Abramek Koplowicz. Lawson also wrote the foreword especially for this edition. The stippled, black-and-white illustrations by Kelly M. Houle were letterpress printed from magnesium plates onto 100 percent cotton Crane Lettra paper. The text is printed in Cloister Old Style metal type crafted by Sky Shipley at Skyline Type Foundry, and the book was printed on an antique Chandler and Price platen press at Skyline.