Old Truths and New Clichés: Essays by Isaac Bashevis Singer

by Isaac Bashevis Singer, David Stromberg (Editor)

Overview

From the Nobel Prize–winning writer, a new collection of literary and personal essays

Old Truths and New Clichés collects nineteen essays—most of them previously unpublished in English—by Isaac Bashevis Singer on topics that were central to his artistic vision throughout an astonishing and prolific literary career spanning more than six decades. Expanding on themes reflected in his best-known work—including the literary arts, Yiddish and Jewish life, and mysticism and philosophy—the book illuminates in new ways the rich intellectual, aesthetic, religious, and biographical background of Singer’s singular achievement as the first Yiddish-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Like a modern Montaigne, Singer studied human nature and created a body of work that contributed to a deeper understanding of the human spirit. Much of his philosophical thought was funneled into his stories. Yet these essays, which Singer himself translated into English or oversaw the translation of, present his ideas in a new way, as universal reflections on the role of the artist in modern society. The unpublished essays featured here include “Old Truths and New Clichés,” “The Kabbalah and Modern Times,” and “A Trip to the Circus.”

Old Truths and New Clichés brims with stunning archival finds that will make a significant impact on how readers understand Singer and his work. Singer’s critical essays have long been overlooked because he has been thought of almost exclusively as a storyteller. This book offers an important correction to the record by further establishing Singer as a formidable intellectual.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691259239
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/14/2024
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	350,377
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903–1991) was the Nobel Prize–winning author of many novels, short story collections, memoirs, and children’s books, including Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories, The Magician of Lublin, and Enemies, A Love Story. David Stromberg, a writer, translator, and literary scholar, is editor for the Isaac Bashevis Singer Literary Trust. His books include Baddies, Idiot Love and the Elements of Intimacy, and A Short Inquiry into the End of the World.

Date of Birth:

July 14, 1904

Date of Death:

July 24, 1991

Place of Birth:

Radzymin, Poland

Place of Death:

Surfside, Florida

Education:

Attended Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary in Warsaw, Poland, 1920-27

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Writers Don't Write for the Drawer: An Introduction to the Essays of Isaac Bashevis Singer 1

The Literary Arts

The Satan of Our Time 19

Journalism and Literature 20

Why Literary Censorship Is Harmful 25

Who Needs Literature? 32

Old Truths and New Clichés 43

Storytelling and Literature 53

Literature for Children and Adults 64

Yiddish and Jewish Life

The Kabbalah and Modern Times 77

The Ten Commandments and Modern Critics 90

The Spirit of Judaism 99

Yiddish, the Language of Exile 108

Yiddish Theater Lives, Despite the Past 119

Yiddish and Jewishness 129

Personal Writings and Philosophy

A Trip to the Circus 147

Why I Write As I Do: The Philosophy and Definition of a Jewish Writer 154

A Personal Concept of Religion 168

A Story about a Collection of Stories 176

The Making of a First Book 179

To the True Protester 194

Singer the Editor: An Afterword on the Editorial Process 195

Acknowledgments 207

Notes 211

Bibliography 223

Index 227

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A wonderful and important new volume, Old Truths and New Clichés is game-changing for our understanding of Isaac Bashevis Singer.”—Debra Caplan, author of Yiddish Empire

"Sly and slightly maddening, blunt and often profound, the Singer of Old Truths and New Clichés surprises with both the generalized pronouncements of an arch individualist and the grounded insights of a staunch universalist. This too is the wonder that Singer was, and David Stromberg’s patient gathering of these sparks and shards is a gift—above all for the angle it offers onto this Jewish master’s intellectual obsessions and his refreshingly eccentric approach to Jewishness itself."—Peter Cole, author of Hymns & Qualms: New and Selected Poems and Translations

“Known for the demons, imps, and broken souls that populate his stories, Singer was also an often acerbic essayist whose critical analyses, once strewn throughout the Yiddish press, are unknown to most readers of English. This welcome collection of his essays offers new insights into this brilliant writer and his craft—his stark iconoclasm, his sometimes surprising attitudes toward literary interpretation, and his complexity.”—Eddy Portnoy, author of Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press

Editorial Reviews

"By affording us a glimpse of Singer’s worldview in all its beguiling ambiguities, Old Truths and New Clichés helps us see his noble achievement more clearly: to combine what he called a 'spiritual stenography' of higher powers with a record of our wrestling with lower passions."—-Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

01/10/2022

Translator Stromberg (Baddies) brings together 19 essays by Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) in this touching collection. The essays, written primarily in the 1960s, are broadly divided into three sections, covering the literary arts, Yiddish and Jewish life, and personal writings and philosophy. In “Why Literary Censorship is Harmful,” Singer argues that, in the future, “decent and socially acceptable” speech won’t win out, but “greater beauty in expression will come together with a stronger desire to elevate the human word to its highest level.” In “Literature for Children and Adults,” Singer laments that there aren’t enough words to convey human emotions. He’s at his best when he writes about Yiddish and Jewish culture, notably in “Yiddish, the Language of Exile,” in which he argues that a Jewish distinctiveness arises from the diaspora, and in “Yiddish and Jewishness,” which defends Yiddish as a language of individuality. In “The Making of a First Book,” about his experience writing Satan in Goray , he notes, “Thank God I was controversial.” An afterword containing passages in the original Yiddish that Singer cut from his English translations and photos of his edits are a nice plus. The author’s fans will be delighted by this intimate anthology. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly