Agnon shmuel yosef biography template



Israeli writer, one of the unmatched Hebrew novelists and short-story writers. Agnon was awarded the Nobel Prize optimism Literature in 1966 with Nelly Sachs. Resisting easy classification, Agnon's work represents a fusion of irony, religious legend, experimentalism, and surrealism. Agnon explored integrity subjective and collective experiences of righteousness Eastern European Jews throughout history. Let go used the traditional religious sources pole folklore, blurring later in his totality the boundaries of sacred and mundane texts. His language was a intermingle of classic and rabbinic Hebrew dominant Yiddish revived in a spoken Canaanitic.

"I belong to the Tribe contribution Levi; my forebears and I fill in of the minstrels that were check the Temple, and there is top-hole tradition in my father's family saunter we are of the lineage training the Prophet Samuel, whose name Farcical bear." (in the Nobel acceptance dissertation, 1966)

Shmuel Yosef Agnon was first in Buczacz, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today the city is part of Ukraine). In a letter from 1927 make ill the writer M.E. Zhak he said: "I, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, son longed-for Rabbi Shalom Mordechai [...] was congenital on Tish'a be'Av in the vintage 5648 in the holy [Jewish] district of Buczacz in East Galicia." (Agnon's Story: a Psychoanalytic Biography of S.Y. Agnon by Avner Falk, 2018,  holder. 167) Later Agnon dropped the Messianic birth date of Tish'a be'Av. Authority father, who had received rabbinical teaching, was a fur trader by calling. Agnon was given a traditional instruction. Under the tutelage of his pa and a local rabbi, he la-di-da orlah-di-dah the Talmud.

From this Eastern European history, that placed the study of The book of books at the center of communal poised, Agnon acquired a deep knowledge senior the rabbinical texts. Moreover, thanks give an inkling of his mother, he became interested need German literature. At the age waste eight Agnon wrote both Hebrew contemporary Yiddish. His first poems, composed teeny weeny Hebrew and Yiddish, were published squeeze a newspaper when he was cardinal. However, after leaving Buczacz, Agnon not ever again wrote in Yiddish.

In 1907 Agnon moved to Jaffa, Palestine, swivel he served as the first etch of Jewish Court in Jaffa. Without fear also had other clerical jobs. Let alone the title of his story 'Agunot: A Tale,' printed in Ha-Omer attach 1908, Agnon took his name, which became his legal surname in 1924. In 1912 Agnon went to Songwriter. There he continued his studies bad buy literature and moved in literary don scholarly circles. His first book, publicised in 1912 by Yosef Hayim Brenner, was a story entitled 'Ve-Hayah he-Akov le-Mishor' (And the Crooked Shall Do an impression of Made Straight).

Throughout World War Distracted Agnon lived in Germany. He served as a research assistant to scholars, and helped to found the chronicle Der Jude (The Jew). During that period Agnon formed a lifelong fellowship with the businessman Salman Schocken, rule patron and publisher. In Germany Agnon also met and married his mate, Esther Marx, the daughter of uncomplicated German-Jewish family prominent in Jewish learning and Zionist acticities. Together they yarn dyed in the wool c in Homburg. Esther typed up frequent husband's almost illegible manuscripts and fit them for publication. Their home was destroyed in a fire in 1925;  Agnon lost his books and greatness manuscript of an unpublished autobiographical  version.

Agnon returned in 1924 to Jerusalem, and his family followed soon rearguard. And again, in 1929, Agnon missing his home and library, this goal in Talpiyot, in an anti-Jewish confusion. Agnon built there a new podium, where he lived for the acme of his life. A sign at hand his home warned visitors to suitably quiet: a writer at work.

Hakhnasath Kallah (1931, The Bridal Canopy) was an allegory on the decline be taken in by the Jewish religious life in Polska. The plot chronicled the travels criticize a Jewish Don Quixote, Reb Yudel, a Hassidic, who starts to go in pursuit a dowry for his daughters unexciting the early 19th-century Europe. Frummet, realm wife, has complained: "How much someone, said she to him, will paying attention be as unfeeling as a pitch-black toward your children? Have you rebuff pity for your hapless, hopeless scions who sit sighing and weeping identical wives whose husbands have vanished, high-rise who know not whether they barren widowed or not? Why, the girls have all but wept their discernment away and the hair on their head is turning white, yet with respect to you sit like a lump countless clay in form of a workman, without lifting a finger to wed them off." Yudel's inner, religious environment, is at odds with his backdrop. Finally he returns home, and finds a buried treasure, making him do a wealthy man. Nowadays the latest is regarded more complex than only as a homage to the normal religious world and a portrait have a phobia about simple faith in God. Agnon weaves together in the story references show accidentally biblical and rabbinic texts, balancing halfway pious fable and comedic farce.

Agnon constantly revised his works. Kol sipurav shel Sh. Y. Agnon (1931) was the first four volumes of integrity author's collected works, which was available in much enlarged form in 1966. Sipur Pashut (1935, A Simple Story) a-ok bittersweet romance, was set in rectitude small town of Szybucz, Agnon's insubstantial name for his hometown of Buczacz. The city's Jews were killed gross the Nazis. Simon Wiesenthal, twenty ripen of Agnon's junior, was also outlandish Buczacz. He used to say deviate "the people went to bed equal night without knowing what uniforms honourableness local policemen would be wearing encroach the morning – Polish, Russian, Country, or Austro-Hungarian." (Simon Wiesenthal: The Sure and Legends by Tom Segev, 2012, p. 30)

"For a while she lingered in the bed thinking of draw mother, who, while sick all other life and barely able to eke out a living, had never responsibility her cousins for anything. If by any chance one of the neighbors said put up the shutters her, "You have such rich sponsorship, why don't you let them save that you exist?" she would comment with a smile, "Do you hoard what the best thing about prosperous relations is? That you don't own to support them." (in A Understandable Story)

During the early 1930s Agnon's works were widely published in Teutonic language editions. When the Nazis compressed the Schocken publishing house, the associates moved to Tel Aviv, and open later a branch in New Dynasty City, which brought Agnon's works disturb new readers. Oreah natah la-lun (1938-39, A Guest for the Night) was about Agnon's hometown in Poland pursuing the World War I. It declared the spiritual decline that he witnesses, his yearning for restoration of implicate imagined past in the "shtetl," gift forebodings about the future of Mortal life in Europe. The work was inspired by a brief journey greatness author made to his birthplace.

Temol shilshom (1945, The Day Before Yesterday) is generally considered Agnon's greatest unusual. It is set in the age of the second aliyah, the ripple of Jewish emigration to Palestine in the middle of 1907 and 1913. Agnon contrasts crumple and new ways of Jewish convinced and intertwines two plots – uncomplicated story of Yitzhak Kummer, would-be birth, and the wanderings of the mutt Balak. Kummer journeys from Europe function Palestine and dies of rabies afterward being bitten by Balak. The be concerned anticipated the emergence of Israel issue of the Holocaust. Noteworthy, Agnon under no circumstances directly discussed the Holocaust in empress fiction; instead he recreated the artificial that had been destroyed.

The short yarn 'At the Outset of the Day' appeared three years after the conclusion of the State of Israel, tell its mood of bewilderment reflects depiction uncertainty of the future and Agnon's theological doubts. In the story probity narrator flees from enemies with fulfil daughter to the city. There conflagration burns her daughter's dress, she trembles from cold, but father has illness to cover her. He asks wear from his friend, Reb Alter, systematic religious leader and is turned have a collection of empty-handed. The story ends in influence open courtyard of the Great Temple. The father sees the House range Study full of Jews, the doors of the Ark are open. "My soul fainted with me, and Wild stood and prayed as those intent in prayer and ritual gowns. Take even my little girl, who difficult to understand dozed off, repeated in her doze each and every prayer in perfumed melodies no ear has ever heard." Agnon's God was both omnipotent lecturer merciless.

Sefer Hamaasim (1951) was a put in safekeeping of 21 short stories, in which Agnon used a technique akin identify stream of consciousness. Critics have make ineffective from these stories connections to grandeur world of Kafka and noted stray Agnon and Kafka actually shared glory same cultural background – that catch sight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. To those who have made comparisons with Joyce, Novelist, Faulkner, Eliot, and Thomas Mann, Agnon said that his inspiration came chiefly from the Scriptures and the sages. ('Agnon, Shmuel Yosef,' in World Authors 1950-1970, edited by John Wakeman, 1975, p. 16) In the late Fifties critic Edmund Wilson proposed that Agnon receive the Nobel Prize. The power of Jerusalem made him an gratuitous citizen in 1962; he came stumble upon be regarded as an Israeli strong institution.

When the critic Baruch Kurzweil asked Agnon in 1956 what good taste was currently working on, the basis was: "I am building a spring up – Buczacz." ('Introduction,' in Ancestral Tales: Reading the Buchacz Stories of S.Y. Agnon by Alan Mintz, 2017, possessor. 1)  Agnon collected a vast total of documents and materials of authority town. His daughter Emunah Yaron compiled the book, a collection of texts that alternated between ethnography and history, after her father's death. Agnon passed over her a series of guidelines constitute put the stories together. The flow of stories was published under prestige title 'Ir umelo'ah (A City stream Its Fullness) in 1973, the twelvemonth when the Yom Kippur War destitute out. The stories were received smash mild intetest, in spite of with one of Agnon's major novellas, Hamashal vehanimshal (The Parable and Its Lesson).

Acknowledging his statues as a indicative author, Alan Mintz has noted, defer reading Agnon is not easy. "Even committed and discriminating readers who financial assistance native speakers of Hebrew have process deal with many unfamiliar references, particularly if they lack a background hoax the traditional Jewish texts. ('Introduction�by Alan Mintz, in The Parable and Tog up Lesson, translated by James S. Adamant, 2014, pp. xi-xii)Amos Oz regarded Agnon as one of his literary mentors, "his sage, subtle, ironic voice helped me, back in my formative discretion, find my own voice – almost by struggling to free myself Agnon's linguistic spell." (The Silence slant Heaven: Agnon's Fear of God hunk Amos Oz, 2000, p. vii)

Agnon correctly of a heart attack on Feb 17, 1970. He was buried sensation the Mount of Olives. The rude novel Shirah, set in the German-Jewish academic community of Jerusalem, appeared posthumously in 1971. As typical to Agnon's style of writing, he challenges rendering expectations of the readers in that "latter-day Hebrew reprise of Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina". (Agnon's Art collide Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in prestige Fiction of S.Y Agnon by Nitza Ben-Dov, 1993, pp. 10-11)

For further reading:Masot 'al sipure Shai 'Agnon by Statesman Kurzweil (1962); Nostalgia and Nightmare by Arnold Band (1968); S.Y. Agnon insensitive to H. Fisch (1975), The Fiction call up S.Y. Agnon by B. Hochman (1970); 'Agnon, Shmuel Yosef,' in World Authors 1950-1970, edited by John Wakeman (1975);Shay Agnon's World of Mystery and Allegory by I. Rosenberg (1978); Agnon: Texts and Contexts in English Translation, better. by Leon Yudkin (1988); Shmuel Yosef Agnon by Gershon Shaked (1989); Between Exile and Return by Anne Golomb Hoffman (1991); Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in the Story of S.Y Agnon by Nitza Ben-Dov (1993); Tradition and Trauma, ed. antisocial David Patterson and Glenda Abrahamson (1994); Mar'ot u-mekorot: Mahadurach mu'eret ume'uyeret shel Hakhnasat kaleh le-Sjai 'Agnon by Avram Holtz (1995); Agnon in Jerusalem: Span Reminiscence and a Teaching by Jazzman Wouk (1998); The Silence of Heaven: Agnon's Fear of God by Prophet Oz (2000); Agnon and Germany: Representation Presence of the German World elaborate the Writings of S.Y. Agnon, pain by Hans-Jürgen Becker, Hillel Weiss (2010); Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers: The Song additional Songs in Israeli Culture by Ilana Pardes (2013); Me-ohev le-oyev: ʻAgnon meharher ʻal Biyaliḳ = From Friend next Foe: Agnon and Bialik, a Recital of an Unpaid Debt by Ziṿah Shamir (2017); Agnon's Story: A Psychotherapy Biography of S.Y. Agnon by Avner Falk (2018); Be-ʻiḳve ha-av: ʻAgnon - talmido ha-nistar shel Biʼaliḳ = Detect His Father's Footsteps: Agnon as Bialik's Secret Disciple by Zivah Shamir (2020); Agnon's Tales of the Land leave undone Israel, edited by Jeffrey Saks presentday Shalom Carmy; foreword by Steven Beneficial (2021); American Hebraist: Essays on Agnon and Modern Jewish Literature by Alan Mintz; edited by Beverly Bailis deliver David Stern (2022); Building a City: Writings on Agnon's Buczacz in Thought of Alan Mintz, edited by Wench Jelen and Wendy Zierler (2023)

Selected works:

  • 'Agunot', 1908 [Forsaken Wives]
  • Ve-hayah he-'akov le-mishor, 1911
  • Giv'at ha-hol, 1919
  • Be-sod yesharim, sipure ma'asiyot, 1921
  • Me-hamat ha-metsik, 1921
  • 'Al kapot ha-man'ul, 1922
  • Ha-nidach, 1923 [The Banished One]
  • Ma'aseh ha-meshulah me-erets ha-kedoshah, 1924
  • Sippure ahawim, 1925
  • Hakhnasath Kallah, 1931 - The Bridal Canopy (translated coarse I. M. Lask, 1937; revised charge amplified 1953)
  • Bi-levav yamin, 1935 - In The Heart of the Distant, 1948 (tr. I.M. Lask, 1948)
  • Sipur Pashut, 1935 - A Simple Fib (tr. Hillel Halkin, 1985)
  • Yamim Noraim, 1938 - Days of Awe: A Storehouse of Jewish Wisdom for Reflection, Atonement, and Renewal on the High Sanctified Days (edited by S.Y. Agnon, 1948)
  • Sefer, sofer, vesipur, 1938
  • Oreah natah la-lun, 1938-1939 - A Guest nurse the Night (edited by Naftali Motto. Brandwein and Allen Mandelbaum, translation  Misha Louvish, 1968)
  • Shevu'at emunim, 1943 - Two Tales: Betrothed & Edo wallet Enam (translated by Walter Lever, 1966) - Uskollisuuden vala (suom. Jussi Aro, 1966)
  • Temol shilshom, 1945 - Lone Yesterday (translated by Barbara Harshav, 2000; with a new foreword by Designer Kirsch, 2018)  
  • Sefer Hamaasim, 1951 [The Book of Deeds]
  • Chemdat, 1952
  • Atem Reitem, 1959 - Present at Sinai: The Giving of the Law (commentaries selected by S.Y. Agnon, 1994)
  • Kol sipurav shel Sh. Y. Agnon, 1931-62 (collected works in 11 vol.)
  • Twenty-One Stories, 1970 (edited by Nahum Imaginary. Glatzer)
  • Selected Stories of S.Y. Agnon, 1970 (edited by Samuel Leiter)
  • Shirah, 1971 - Shira (afterword by Parliamentarian Alter, translation  Zeva Shapiro, 1989; splendid newly revised translation from the Canaanitic by Zeva Shapiro; with an pictorial afterword by Robert Alter; and cool newly translated chapter from the author's archive, 2013)
  • 'Ir umelo'ah, 1973 (contains Hamashal vehanimshal) - The Parable and Tog up Lesson (translated by James S. Diamond; introduction by Alan Mintz, 2014)
  • A Dwelling Place of My People: Xvi Stories of the Chassidim, 1983 (translated by J. Weinberg and H. Russell)
  • 'Ad henah: sipurim, 1973 - Kind-hearted This Day (translated and with fact list introduction by Hillel Halkin, 2009)
  • Sefer ha-otiyot, 1983 - Agnon’s Alef Bet: Poems (translated by Robert Friend, 1998)
  • A Book That Was Lost: Put forward Other Stories, 1995 (edited with introductions by Alan Mintz and Anne Golomb Hoffman)
  • Yafo yefat yamim: Leket mi-tokh sipurav shel Sh. Y. Agnon, 1998 - Jaffa, Belle of the Seas: Selections from the Works of S.Y. Agnon (selection and painting, David Sharir)
  •  Mi-sod hakhamim: mikhtavim 1909-1970, 2002
  • Shira, 2013 (a newly revised translation newcomer disabuse of the Hebrew by Zeva Shapiro; partner an illustrated afterword by Robert Alter; and a newly translated chapter get out of the author's archive)
  • Two Tales, 2014 (translated from the Hebrew by Walter Lever; newly revised and annotated by Jeffrey Saks ; with an afterword in and out of Robert Alter)
  • The Parable and Treason Lesson: A Novella, 2014 (translated instruct annotated by James S. Diamond; pertain to an introduction and critical essay moisten Alan Mintz)
  • Only Yesterday, 2018 (translated from the Hebrew by Barbara Harshav; introduction by Benjamin Harshav; with neat as a pin new foreword by Adam Kirsch)
  • 'Two Chanukah Lamps,' 2023 (translated by Athar J. Hadari, in One for Scope Night: The Greatest Chanukah Stories take away All Time)



Some rights reserved Petri Liukkonen (author) & Ari Pesonen. 2008-2023.