“Basically,
all novelists should want to tell a story, and if they don't want to, they
shouldn't be novelists. I think story-telling is important and underrated.”
– Susan Howatch
One of the giants of 20th
Century literature who took Howatch’s admonition to heart was Isaac Bashevis
Singer, who started out wanting to be a journalist but kept getting drawn
toward the creative side instead.
Born
this day in 1902 near Warsaw, Poland, he was first groomed to be a rabbi, but
that too proved a fruitless endeavor and he gravitated quickly into the writing
life. After emigrating to the U.S. where
he lived, worked and wrote for newspapers and journals in New York City, he
debuted as a fiction writer in 1925 with the short story "In Old
Age." In 1935, his first novel, Satan in Goray, was published.
He
continued writing short stories that
reflected both his daily life and times and those of his childhood.
Among his acclaimed short stories was one of his best-known, "Gimple the
Fool." His 1950 novel, The Family
Moskat, about a family living in the ghettos of pre–World
War II Poland brought him worldwide success from which he never looked
back.
Isaac
Bashevis Singer
One of his most
recognized works from his later years was Enemies: A Love Story, about the
emotional struggle of a Holocaust survivor.
His other important novels included The Manor, The Estate
and his memoir, In My Father's Court.
In 1978, he was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature for his life’s body of work. Aspiring writers everywhere continue to study
Singer's work for the surprising blend of religious morality and social
awareness combined with an investigation of personal desires.
“A story to me means a plot where there must be
some surprise,” Singer said, when asked what led to writing successes. “Because that is how life is,
after all, full of surprises.”
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