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Jewish Writing

William Baker

A Reference and Critical Guide to Jewish Writing in the UK *In two volumes.

* Vol.1 ISBN 9781912224098 Hardback £45.00 226pp. * Vol.2 ISBN 9781912224104 Hardback £45.00 226pp. ​ The first detailed reference and critical guide to Anglo-Jewish writing. It offers accurate and up-to-date information on the lives and accomplishments of its subjects, as well as expert summaries and criticism of their work

Baker and Shumaker eschew theoretical formulations to offer a comprehensive view of many important poets, dramatists, fiction and nonfiction writers, as well as literary critics and other scholars. 


Each chapter gives an overview of the similarities and differences of the writers’ Anglo-Jewish experiences and how those experiences influenced them.


Writers covered in the first volume include, in the first section, the Victorians and pioneers E. O. Deutsch, B. L. Farjeon, Israel Gollancz, Leonard Merrick, Lazarus Aaronson, and others.

The second section covers four critical voices: Vivian de Sola Pinto, Jacob Isaacs, Q. D. Leavis, and David Daiches.

In the third, novelists Louis Golding, Alexander Baron, Gerda Charles, and Bernice Rubens. In the fourth, poets such as Karen Gershon, Dannie Abse, Jon Silkin, Ruth Fainlight, Philip Hobsbaum, and A. C. Jacobs. The final section encompasses playwrights and more, including Bernard Kops, Arnold Wesker, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, A. A. Alvarez, and Gabriel Josipovici.


The concluding bibliography is divided into a detailed alphabetical enumerative listing of writers’ work followed by a listing of critical works about them. A comprehensive index in volume two draws the volume together.


Volume 1. Contents: Introduction. 1.  Pioneers: E. O. Deutsch, B. L. Farjeon, Israel Gollancz, Leonard Merrick, and Lazarus Aaronson. 2.   Four Critical Voices: Vivian de Sola Pinto, Jacob Isaacs, Q. D. Leavis, and David Daiches. 3.   Novelists: Louis Golding, Alexander Baron, Gerda Charles, and Bernice Rubens. 4.   Poets: Karen Gershon, Dannie Abse, Jon Silkin, Ruth Fainlight, Philip Hobsbaum, and A. C. Jacobs. 5.   Playwrights and More: Bernard Kops, Arnold Wesker, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, A. A. Alvarez, and Gabriel Josipovici. Works Cited and Bibliography: Primary; Secondary.


Volume 2. Contents:  Preface; 1. Nineteenth-Century Writers. 2. Fin de Siècle to Mid-Twentieth Century Writers. 3. Twentieth-Century Writers. 4. Contemporary Writers. Works Cited and Bibliography: Primary; Secondary. Index to both volumes.

Comments


“Often neglected, forgotten or overlooked, the writers in this essential reference and critical guide to Anglo-Jewish writing by Baker and Shumaker find a new and important prominence. In its comprehensiveness and detail, the two volumes provide an indispensable text that will undoubtedly become the standard work for a set of writers known and unknown.”

Ira Nadel, Professor of English, University of British Columbia.