Great Writers: Issac Bashevis Singer DVD

Great Writers

Isaac Bashevis Singer

A fascinating documentary that presents the story of the writer's life, as well as examines the social and political events that influenced their works. This program includes insightful commentary, as well as archival documents and rare interviews.

Issac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), was a Polish-born American writer in the Yiddish language and Nobel laureate. He was born on July 14th, 1904, in Radzymin, Poland. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1935 and became a naturalized citizen in 1943.

Singer was associated with the Jewish Daily Forward, a New York City Yiddish-language newspaper. His novel, Satan in Goray (1955), deals with the 17th century pogrom's in which Jews in Poland were massacred by Cossacks. His other well-known novels include The Family Moskat (1950), The Manor (1967), and The Estate (1969). The autobiographical In My Father's Court was published in 1966. He also wrote many imaginative short stories, including those published in Gimple the Fool and Other Stories (1957). He won the National Book Award for A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw (1969), one of his several books for children.

In 1978, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for an "impassioned narrative art" that is rooted in Polish-Jewish culture. His Collected Stories was published in 1982 and Stories for Children in 1984. A popular film, Yentl, was based on his story Yentl the Yeshiva Boy (1983).

Production by Kultur Video, 2006
4:3 Full Screen, Color, 45 mins, Dolby 2.0
Format: NTSC, Region 1 (USA & Canada)
Language: English
Genre: Documentary, Literature