About
Isaac Bashevis Singer was born into a Hasidic rabbinical family in Leoncin, near Warsaw, in the Russian Empire. He grew up in the Yiddish-speaking quarter of Warsaw. Emigrating to the United States in 1935, he wrote exclusively in Yiddish and personally supervised English translations of his works. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, he remains the only Yiddish-language writer to have received this honor. His novels and short stories explore Polish-Jewish life, folklore, tradition, and modern dilemmas. He also worked for decades as a journalist for the Jewish Daily Forward.
* 1903-11-21 — † 1991-07-24
Major works
- Satan in Goray (1935)novel
- The Family Moskat (1950)novel
- The Magician of Lublin (1960)novel
- Enemies, a Love Story (1972)novel
- Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (1966)children's short story collection
Key milestones
- 1935Emigrated to the United States, fleeing the Nazi threat.
- 1978Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the only Yiddish-language writer to receive it.
- 1943Became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Themes
Polish-Jewish lifeFolklore and traditionGood and evilIdentity and modernitySpirituality and doubt
Sources: nobelprize.org · britannica.com · anb.org
