Bella Chagall, wife of the great painter Marc Chagall, was herself a gifted author and actress, as well as the inspiration for much of her husband's work. First Encounter is her memoir of life in pre-revolutionary Vitebsk, White Russia, where she was born and where she met Marc Chagall.

Born in 1895 into a hasidic family, Bella Chagall was the youngest of seven children. She enrolled in the state high school rather than the religious school her brothers attended, and because she distinguished herself by receiving a gold medal, she was able to study at the Universiry of Moscow, an education usually denied Jewish children. This is the moving story of her girlhood and youth.

After World War I, she and her husband settled in Paris, where she edited and translated his autobiography. She began her own writing after a trip to Poland in the 1930s where she was shocked by anti-semitism. She wrote in Yiddish, her first language, relating her own experiences of shtetl life. As this volume shows, she proved to be a born story-teller with a special gift for recreating the warm intimacy and humor of her early life.

This volume also includes Burning Lights, Bella Chagall's memoir of her early childhood.

Includes 74 Illustrations by Marc Chagall. These line drawings, created especially for this memoir, are comparable to his best work. The book also includes a personal and very touching afterword written by him.