Beyle Friedberg was born in Grodno to the Russian-Hebrew writer Abraham Shalom Friedberg, who later moved to St. Petersburg.There she entered the Yiddish literary circle, and in 1886 married the writer Mordecai Spector.They moved to Warsaw the following year, where they eventually divorced.Her first published novel was a novella called Der yosem (literally “Orphan”), which appeared in the first volume of Der hoyz-fraynd in 1888 under the pseudonym “Isabella”.
She continued to write short stories for Der hoyz-fraynd and Yidishe Bibliotek until the 1890s, depicting the social conditions of the Jewish middle class in Eastern Europe, especially the experiences of young educated women from the Jewish community.In these stories, she draws comparisons between older and newer generations and points out the dangers of a superficial modern education.
Her novel Fun glik tsum keyver: a khosn oyf oystsoln (literally From Joy to Grave: The Husband in Raten’s Plan) was published in Warsaw in 1894. Grinevskaya’s career as a playwright began with Ogon’ki (literally, “The First Storm”), a Russian one-act play that premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg on April 2, 1895, starring Maria Savina .A string of one-act lyrical comedies (“Workday,” “Dance Lesson,” “Playing for Parting,” “The Letter,” “They Agreed,” “The Fire,” “The Bear Hunt,” and “From the Village”) followed. Letter”) was subsequently staged at the Empire Stage Theatre.She also translated Zaczarowane koło by Lucjan Rydel, La Realtà by Gerolamo Rovetta and La città morta by Gabriele D’Annunzio, which was performed by Alexandrinsky.
