Isaac B. Singer

Florence Noiville

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is widely recognized as the most popular Yiddish writer of the twentieth century, but although he was a very public and outgoing figure, much about his personal life remains unknown. Singer was able to recreate the lost world of Jewish Eastern Europe and also to describe the immigrant experience in America. Drawing heavily upon folklore, his work is noted for its mystical strain, but he was also concerned with the problems of his own day. Singer's personal life was marked by contradiction: the son of a rabbi, he struggled with devotion and doubt. Solicitous of affection, he was also known for his philandering. Devoted to the notion of family, he abandoned his own son. Drawing on letters, personal recollections, and interviews with friends, family, and contemporaries, biographer Noiville addresses these paradoxes in a narrative rich in detail about the...

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