Konrad Bercovici

The family remained in Romania until his father died from injuries sustained during anti-Semitic riots in Galaţi when Bercovici was 11.

Konrad worked there during preparations for the 1900 World's Fair, and his education was influenced by witnessing public debates and recriminations surrounding the Dreyfus Affair.

To make ends meet Bercovici worked in sweatshops, gave piano lessons, and played the organ for nickelodeons.

[3] He had begun his work as a writer as a journalist for a Yiddish paper in Montreal, but garnered attention when his first English-language book Crimes of Charity—with an introduction by John Reed—exposed controversial practices in private charities in New York City.

Bercovici continued to write articles as a journalist throughout his career, but became best known for his literary fiction that explored Gypsy themes.

Stories like "Ghitza," and "The Bear Tamer's Daughter" established Bercovici as a peer of his contemporaries in the 1920s when he was often included in World's Best Short Fiction collections.

[5] His success as a writer allowed Bercovici to travel and produce well-received examinations of Ethnic immigrants making their homes throughout the United States.

Most often, Bercovici traveled to Europe where he ran in circles with Lost Generation writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.