BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER
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BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER
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Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)
was born in Radzymin, Poland. After his education at a rabbinical seminary
in Warsaw, he worked as a proofreader and translator before emigrating to
the United States in 1935. Settling in New York City, he made his living
as a journalist for the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish—language paper.
He also wrote autobiographical sketches, short stories, and novels in Yiddish
for many years. |
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| In 1950 his writing became available to a wider audience when he began to publish it in English translations, starting with the realistic historical chronicle The Family Moskat. Singer's first collection of short stories, Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories (translated by the noted American novelist Saul Bellow and others), appeared in 1957, and during the 1960s and 1970s he alternated novels with books of short fiction. A prolific writer, Singer also published three volumes of autobiographical reminiscences. In 1978 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. His Collected Stories appeared in 1981. |
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| In all his work Singer explores
the traditions of Jewish life, past and present, expressing his fascination
with the history of his people: "I was born with the feeling that I
am part of an unlikely adventure, something that couldn't have happened,
but happened all the same." |
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