For the next several years Peretz embarked upon various business ventures in the region, including a failed attempt to make a living distilling whiskey. His marriage with Sarah ended in divorce after five years; they had one child together, Lucian, born about 1874. In 1876-1877 he lived in Warsaw, where he worked as a Hebrew tutor, before returning to Zamość. By this time he had begun to write Hebrew poetry; in 1877, together with his former father-in-law Lichtenfeld, he published his first book of Hebrew poetry.