Abstract
Xsaac Babel had a penchant for things; the stories First Love, My First Goose, and My First Fee attest to this. His first published piece, Old Shloime (1913), has received little critical attention, however, and, as some would argue, rightly so, since it was not a spectacular debut. This article will argue the story's merit and intrinsic interest as Babel's first publication. It appeared on February 9 in the Kiev-based liberal journal Ogni as part of a regular rubric entitled Jewish Life (Evreiskaia zhizn'). The series was devoted to the Jewish Question in general and reflects a sympathetic, insider's perspective.1 Babel was studying in Kiev at the time, having been forced to go there in 1911 as a result of the restrictions set on Jews wishing to study at the university of Odessa, his beloved hometown.2
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