On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Magician of Lublin, Lorin Stein, the editor of the Paris Review, wrote a short introduction to the FSG reissue for reviewers and booksellers. We've reprinted it here with his permission. Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–91) occupies a unique place in American literature. Although he left Poland for the United States in 1935 and lived here until his death, he never wrote a single story in English. He was the only Yiddish writer ever inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the only Yiddish writer ever to receive a Nobel Prize, yet he wrote for the American mainstream. His novels were serialized in Yiddish by the Forward, but—starting with The Magician of Lublin, published fifty years ago—all his books first appeared as English translations. Singer supervised these translations closely, even jealously. (He fired one early translator, Saul Bellow, fearing that Bellow would get the credit for Singer’s own achievement.)
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09.16.10The Archives: Isaac Bashevis SingerGuest Writer
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09.16.10Pairing Novels and Albums: Two AttemptsGuest Writer
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10.14.10President Barack Obama on Nelson MandelaGuest Writer
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11.16.10Wikileaks and War PoetryGuest Writer
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12.15.10When and Why to MFA, If EverGuest Writer
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12.15.10The Best and Worst GiftGuest Writer
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01.16.11Mario Vargas Llosa: How I Lost My Fear of FlyingGuest Writer
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02.14.11Geoff Dyer: Reader’s BlockGuest Writer
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04.14.11Vladimir Sorokin: Ideally, Prose Simply HappensGuest Writer
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05.17.11Orientation: A Short Story by Daniel OrozcoGuest Writer
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06.15.11Ten French Films for a Revised CanonGuest Writer
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07.14.11Miroslav Penkov: Bulgaria and FictionGuest Writer
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07.14.11Misha Glouberman: The Happiness ClassGuest Writer
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09.15.11We Brought Tomorrow Until Today Was GoneGuest Writer
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10.13.11Paul La Farge: The Immersive Text and the NovelGuest Writer
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10.13.11André Aciman: ParallaxGuest Writer
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11.18.11Will Hermes: Four Weeks of New York MusicGuest Writer
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11.18.11Henry Hitchings: Unholy ShitGuest Writer
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08.23.12Remembering Phyllis DillerGuest Writer
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01.31.13The Problem with Aesthetic ViolenceGuest Writer