Israel Joshua Singer
| Israel Joshua Singer | |
|---|---|
|
Israel Joshua Singer photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1938 | |
| Born |
November 30, 1893 Biłgoraj, Congress Poland |
| Died |
February 10, 1944 (aged 50) New York City, US |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | Yiddish |
| Ethnicity | Polish Jew |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Genre | fictional prose |
| Notable works | The Brothers Ashkenazi |
Israel Joshua Singer (Yiddish: ישראל יהושע ; November 30, 1893, Biłgoraj, Congress Poland — February 10, 1944 New York) was an American novelist who wrote in Yiddish. He was born Yisruel Yehoyshye Zinger, the son of Pinchas Mendl Zinger, a rabbi and author of rabbinic commentaries, and Basheva Zylberman. He was the brother of author Isaac Bashevis Singer and novelist Esther Kreitman.
Singer contributed to the European Yiddish press from 1916. In 1921, after Abraham Cahan noticed his story Pearls, Singer became a correspondent for the American Yiddish newspaper The Forward. His short story Liuk appeared in 1924, illuminating the ideological confusion of the Bolshevik Revolution. He wrote his first novel, Steel and Iron, in 1927. In 1934 he emigrated to the United States. He died of a heart attack at age 50 in New York City in 1944.
His memoir Fun a velt vos iz nishto mer (English: Of a World That is No More) was published posthumously in 1946. His other works include:
- Shtol un Ayzn (1927); translated into English as Blood Harvest (1935)[1]
- Nay Rusland (Eng: New Russia) (1928)
- Yoshe Kalb (1932). Also titled The Sinners, Liveright Pub., NY (1933)
- The Brothers Ashkenazi (1936)
- Friling (1937)
- East of Eden, (originally titled Khaver Nachman) published by Alfred J. Knopf (1939)
- The Family Carnovsky (1969) (originally titled Di mishpokhe Karnovski) (1943)
- The River Breaks Up published by Alfred Knopf (1938); republished by Vanguard Press, NY (1966)
- Dertseylungen (English: Stories); published posthumously, 1949
In the introduction to A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg stated that Singer's books are organized "in a way that satisfies the usual Western expectations as to literary structure. His novels resemble the kind of family chronicle popular in Europe several decades ago [that is, the turn of the century]".[2]
Citations
- ↑ Sorrel Kerbel - The Routledge Encyclopedia of Jewish Writers 1135456070 2004 -"The repeated attacks made on Singer's anti-communist attitudes embittered him, and after the appearance of his first novel, Shtol un ayzn (Steel and Iron), "
- ↑ Howe, Irving; Greenberg, Eliezer, eds. (1954). A treasury of Yiddish stories. New York: Viking Press. p. 84.
References
- Norich, Anita (2000). "Singer, Israel Joshua". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press.