Having lost his father at the age of eighteen, Maggid learned the calling of a lapidary, but not content with cutting epitaphs on tombstones and monuments, he occasionally composed inscriptions.
He indulged his taste for general literature and published various articles and bibliographical papers in the current Hebrew periodicals.
Maggid's most important work was "Ir Wilna", the first volume of which appeared in Vilna in 1900; it contains the biographies of more than three hundred prominent rabbis, preachers, and communal workers.
Maggid left in manuscript two other volumes, containing biographies of the important scholars and communal workers of Vilna in more recent times.
The third volume contains also new material for the history of the Jews in Vilna and Lithuania, and includes numerous documents hitherto unpublished.