View source for Isaac Bashevis Singer

{{Short description|Jewish American author (1903–1991)}}
{{For|the American inventor|Isaac Singer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Isaac Bashevis Singer
| image            = File:Isaac Bashevis Singer (Gotfryd).jpg
| caption          = Portrait {{Circa}} 1980–1990
| imagesize        = 
| awards           = {{awards|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]|1978}}
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1903|11|11|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Leoncin]], [[Congress Poland]], [[Russian Empire]]
| birth_name       = Izaak Zynger
| penname          = Bashevis,<br /> Warszawski {{nowrap|(pron. Varshavsky)}},<br />D. Segal
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1991|7|24|1903|11|11|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[Surfside, Florida]], [[United States]]
| resting_place    = [[Cedar Park Cemetery, New Jersey|Cedar Park Cemetery]],<br>
[[Paramus, New Jersey]], U.S.
| occupation       = Novelist, short story writer
| language         = [[Yiddish]]
| citizenship      = Poland, United States
| genre            = [[prose|Fictional prose]]
| notableworks     = ''[[The Magician of Lublin (novel)|The Magician of Lublin]]''<br />''[[A Day of Pleasure]]''
| signature        = Isaac_Bashevis_Singer_Signature_from_the_Goldman_Collection.png
| native_name      = יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער
| native_name_lang = yi
}}

'''Isaac Bashevis Singer''' ({{langx|yi|יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער}}; November 11, 1903<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=November 11, 2020 |title=Is today actually Isaac Bashevis Singer's birthday? |url=https://lithub.com/is-today-actually-isaac-bashevis-singers-birthday/|access-date=November 12, 2020 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Singer |first=Isaac Bashevis |title=Who Needs Literature? |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/who-needs-literature/|access-date=November 12, 2020 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books|date=November 11, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography |url=https://www.bashevissinger.com/biography|access-date=November 12, 2020 |publisher=Isaac Bashevis Singer |language=en-US}}</ref> – July 24, 1991) was a [[Poland|Polish]]-born [[Jews|Jewish]] novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, [[Essay|essayist]], and translator in the [[United States]]. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and published first in [[Yiddish]] and later translated his own works into English with the help of editors and collaborators.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer |url= https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100507926|access-date=November 12, 2020 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Immigration |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/pakn-treger/2020-pakn-treger-digital-translation-issue/immigration |access-date=2021-08-03 |publisher=Yiddish Book Center |language=en}}</ref> He was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in [[1978 Nobel Prize in Literature|1978]].<ref name=yivo/><ref name=nobellecture/> A leading figure in the [[Yiddish literature|Yiddish literary movement]], he was awarded two U.S. [[National Book Award]]s, [[National Book Award for Young People's Literature|one in Children's Literature]] for his memoir ''[[A Day of Pleasure|A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw]]'' (1970)<ref name=nba1970/> and [[National Book Award for Fiction|one in Fiction]] for his collection ''[[A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories]]'' (1974).<ref name="nba1974" />

==Life==
[[File:Israel Joszua Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer 1930s.jpg|thumb|Isaac (right) with his brother [[Israel Joshua Singer]] (1930s)]]
[[File:Ulica Krochmalna w Warszawie ok. 1941.jpg|thumb|Krochmalna Street in [[Warsaw]] near the place where the Singers lived (1940 or 1941)]]
[[File:Biłgoraj - Ławka Izaaka Baszewisa Singera (01) - DSC00455 v1.jpg|thumb|Singer's bench in [[Biłgoraj]]]]
[[File:Tablica Izaak Baszewis Singer ul. Krochmalna 1.jpg|thumb|Commemorative plaque at 1 Krochmalna Street in Warsaw]]
Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in 1903<ref name=":0" /> to a Jewish family in [[Leoncin]] village near [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer {{!}} American author |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Bashevis-Singer |access-date=November 12, 2020 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> The Polish form of his birth name was '''Icek Hersz Zynger'''.<ref name="Noiville2008">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Td7xGID0IhQC |author=Florence Noiville |title=Isaac B. Singer: A Life |publisher=Northwestern University Press |year=2008 |page=65 |isbn=978-0810124820|author-link=Florence Noiville}}</ref> The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but most sources say it was probably November 11, a date similar to the one that Singer gave to his official biographer Paul Kresh,{{Sfn|Kresh| 1979|p=390}} his secretary Dvorah Telushkin,{{Sfn | Telushkin | 1997 | p = 266}} and Rabbi William Berkowitz.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/03/nyregion/new-york-day-by-day-165347.html |title=New York Day by Day; |date=September 3, 1984 |work=The New York Times|access-date=November 21, 2019 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Some sources mention 1902. The year 1903 is consistent with the historical events that his brother refers to in their childhood memoirs, including the death of [[Theodor Herzl]]. The often-quoted birth date, July 14, 1904, was made up by the author in his youth, possibly to make himself younger to avoid the draft.{{Sfn | Tree | 2004 | pp = 18–19}}

His father Pinchus-Mendel Zinger (1868–?) was a [[Hasidic]] [[rabbi]] from [[Tomaszów Lubelski]] ([[Lublin Governorate]]), and his mother, Szewa (nee Zilberman, 1871–?) was from {{ill|Poritsk|uk|Старий Порицьк}} ([[Vladimir-Volynsky Uyezd]], [[Volhynia Governorate]]); parents registered their marriage on June 2 (14) 1889 in [[Biłgoraj]].<ref>[https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/10503452?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=158 Marriage Record in Polish State Archives (in Russian Language)]: Father's parents are listed as Tomaszów dwellers Shmul Zinger and Tema Sheyner; mother's parents as Poritsk dwellers Yakov-Mordka Zilberman and Chana Danziger.</ref> Singer later used her first name in an initial literary pseudonym, ''Izaak Baszewis'', which he later expanded.<ref>Several of his professional identification cards using localized spellings and further variants of these names are reproduced in: {{cite book |last=Wollitz |first=Seth L. |editor1-last=Staley |editor1-first=Thomas F. |title=The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6CMeS2WOSWMC |access-date=July 28, 2012 |series=Literary Modernism Series |year=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-79147-3}}</ref> Both his older siblings, sister [[Esther Kreitman]] (1891–1954) and brother [[Israel Joshua Singer]] (1893–1944), became writers as well. Esther was the first of the family to write stories.{{Sfn | Carr | 1992}}

The family moved to the court of the Rabbi of [[Radzymin]] in 1907, where his father became head of the Yeshiva. After the Yeshiva building burned down in 1908, the family moved to Warsaw, a flat at Krochmalna Street 10. In the spring of 1914, the Singers moved to No. 12.<ref>{{Citation |first=J |last=Leociak |title=Spojrzenia na warszawskie getto. Ulica Krochmalna |trans-title=Glimpses of the Warsaw Ghetto |publisher=Dom Spotkań z Historią |place=Warszawa |year=2011 |page=29 |oclc=800883074}}</ref>

The street where Singer grew up was located in the impoverished, [[Yiddish]]-speaking Jewish quarter of Warsaw. There his father served as a rabbi, and was called on to be a judge, arbitrator, religious authority and spiritual leader in the Jewish community.{{Sfn | Singer | 1967}} The unique atmosphere of pre-war Krochmalna Street can be found both in the collection of ''Varshavsky-stories'', which tell stories from Singer's childhood,<ref>Best known: ''My Father's Court'' 1966</ref> as well as in those novels and stories which take place in pre-war Warsaw.<ref>''Die familye Mushkat''/''The Family Moskat'' 1950, ''Shoym'' 1967/Scum 1991, etc.</ref>

===World War I===
In 1917, because of the hardships of World War I, the family split up. Singer moved with his mother and younger brother Moshe to Biłgoraj, a traditional ''[[shtetl]],'' where his mother's brothers had followed his grandfather as rabbis.{{Sfn | Singer | 1967}} When his father became a village rabbi again in 1921, Singer returned to [[Warsaw]]. He entered the [[Tachkemoni]] Rabbinical Seminary and soon decided that neither the school nor the profession suited him. He returned to Biłgoraj, where he tried to support himself by giving [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] lessons, but soon gave up and joined his parents, considering himself a failure. In 1923, his older brother Israel Joshua arranged for him to move to Warsaw to work as a proofreader for the Jewish magazine ''[[Literarishe Bleter]]'', of which the brother was an editor.{{Sfn | Singer | 1976}}

[[File:Literarishe bleter.jpg|thumb|Cover of the Literarishe Bleter]]

===United States===
In 1935, four years before the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] [[Invasion of Poland|invasion]], Singer emigrated from [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] to the United States.<ref name= "Jewish Am Hall Fame" /> He was fearful of the growing threat in neighboring Germany.<ref>{{cite book |first=Kristina |last=Maul |title=Communication and Society in Jewish American Short Stories |publisher=GRIN Verlag |year=2007 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl1jSXDV7nwC&pg=PA19 |isbn=9783638843201}}.</ref> The move separated the author from his common-law first wife Runia Pontsch and son Israel Zamir (1929–2014); they immigrated to [[Moscow]] and then [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]]. The three met again in 1955.

Singer settled in New York City, where he took up work as a journalist and columnist for ''[[The Jewish Daily Forward]]'' ({{lang |yi|פֿאָרװערטס}}), a Yiddish-language newspaper. (When he arrived in the US, he only knew three words of English: "Take a chair".<ref name= "Jewish Am Hall Fame" />) After a promising start, he became despondent and for some years felt ''Lost in America'' (title of his 1974 memoir published in Yiddish; published in English in 1981).

In 1938, he met Alma Wassermann ([[née]] Haimann) (1907–1996), a German-Jewish refugee from [[Munich]]. They married in 1940, and their union seemed to release energy in him; he returned to prolific writing and to contributing to the ''Forward''. In addition to his pen name of "Bashevis", he published under the pen names of "Warszawski" (pron. Varshavsky) during World War&nbsp;II,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shmeruk |first1=Chone |last2= Pekal| first2= Anna| title= Isaac Bashevis Singer on Bruno Schulz|date=1991|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25778558|journal=The Polish Review|volume=36|issue=2|pages=161–167|jstor=25778558|issn=0032-2970}}</ref> and "D. Segal".<ref>See both bibliographies (given on this page).</ref> They lived for many years in the [[Belnord]] apartment building on Manhattan's [[Upper West Side]].<ref name=belnord>{{Citation |journal=The City Review |url= http://www.thecityreview.com/uws/bway/belnord.html/ |title=The Belnord |first=Carter B |last=Horsley | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100330034105/http://www.thecityreview.com/uws/bway/belnord.html/ | archive-date = March 30, 2010}}.</ref> He became a US citizen in 1943.<ref name= "Jewish Am Hall Fame" />

In 1981, Singer delivered a commencement address at the [[University at Albany]] and was presented with an honorary doctorate.<ref>{{Citation |title=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4liBfiEdEE | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/R4liBfiEdEE| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|contribution=University at Albany's 137th Annual Commencement |date=May 24, 1981 |format=video}}{{cbignore}}.</ref>

A resident of [[Surfside, Florida]], Singer died on July 24, 1991, after suffering a series of [[stroke]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Eric |last=Pace |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Laureate for His Yiddish Stories, Is Dead at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/26/obituaries/isaac-bashevis-singer-nobel-laureate-for-his-yiddish-stories-is-dead-at-87.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 26, 1991 |access-date=April 30, 2008}}.</ref> He was buried in [[Cedar Park Cemetery, Paramus]], [[New Jersey]].<ref name=nyt1>{{Cite news |first=Robert |last=Strauss |title= Sometimes the Grave Is a Fine and Public Place |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/nyregion/sometimes-the-grave-is-a-fine-and-public-place.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 28, 2004 |access-date= July 21, 2025}}.</ref> 95th Street in Surfside is named Isaac Singer Boulevard in his honor.<ref>[https://www.townofsurfsidefl.gov/departments-services/visit-surfside/visit-surfside-blog/visit-surfside/2023/10/19/surfside's-history Surfside's History: Celebrating 90 Years], [[Surfside, Florida]], October 19, 2023. Accessed July 21, 2025. "Some of the Town’s most infamous guests and residents include organized crime figures like Tony Accardo and Sam Tucker, as well as famed author Isaac Bashevis Singer, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. Surfside’s 95th Street is co-named Isaac Bashevis Singer Boulevard in honor of the great Yiddish poet and short-story author."</ref>

==Literary career==
Singer's first published story "Oyf der elter" ("In Old Age", 1925) won the literary competition of the ''Literarishe Bleter'', where he worked as a proofreader.<ref name= joshee>[https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/singer_isaac_bashevis "Singer, Isaac Bashevis"], by Joseph Sherman, ''[[YIVO Encyclopedia]]''</ref> A reflection of his formative years in "the kitchen of literature"{{Sfn | Telushkin | 1997 | p = 123}} can be found in many of his later works. In 1933, Singer published his first novel, ''[[Satan in Goray]]'', in installments in the literary magazine ''Globus'', which he had co-founded with his lifelong friend, the Yiddish poet [[Aaron Zeitlin]]. It is set in the years following 1648, when the [[Chmielnicki massacres]], considered one of the greatest Jewish catastrophes, occurred. The story describes the Jewish messianic cult that arose in the village of [[Goraj, Lublin Voivodeship|Goraj]]. It explores the effects of the  faraway false messiah, [[Shabbatai Zvi]], on the local population. Its last chapter imitates the style of a medieval Yiddish chronicle. With a stark depiction of innocence crushed by circumstance, the novel appears to foreshadow coming danger. In his later work ''The Slave'' (1962), Singer returns to the aftermath of 1648 in a love story between a Jewish man and a [[gentile]] woman. He portrays the traumatized and desperate survivors of the historic catastrophe with even deeper understanding.

===''The Family Moskat''===
Singer became a literary contributor to ''[[The Jewish Daily Forward]]'' only after his older brother Israel died in 1944. That year, Singer published ''[[The Family Moskat]]'' in his brother's honor. His own style showed in the daring turns of his action and characters, with double adultery during the holiest of nights of Judaism, the evening of [[Yom Kippur]] (despite being printed in a Jewish family newspaper in 1945). He was nearly forced to stop writing the novel by his editor-in-chief, [[Abraham Cahan]], but was saved by readers who wanted the story to continue.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} After this, his stories—which he had published in Yiddish literary newspapers before—were printed in the ''Forward'' as well. Throughout the 1940s, Singer's reputation grew.

Singer believed in the power of his native language and thought that there was still a large audience, including in New York, who longed to read in Yiddish. In an interview in ''[[Encounter (magazine)|Encounter]]'' (February 1979), he said that although the [[History of the Jews in Poland|Jews of Poland]] had died, "something—call it spirit or whatever—is still somewhere in the universe. This is a mystical kind of feeling, but I feel there is truth in it."

Some of his colleagues and readers were shocked by his all-encompassing view of human nature. He wrote about female homosexuality ("Zeitl and Rickel",{{Sfn | Singer | 1968}} "Tseytl un Rikl"), published in ''The Seance and Other Stories'',{{Sfn | Singer | 1968a}} [[transvestism]] ("Yentl the Yeshiva Boy" in ''Short Friday''), and of rabbis corrupted by demons ("Zeidlus the Pope" in ''Short Friday''). In those novels and stories which refer to events in his own life, he portrays himself unflatteringly (with some degree of accuracy) as an artist who is self-centered yet has a keen eye for the sufferings and tribulations of others.

===Literary influences===
[[File:Dan Hadani collection (990044399930205171) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Singer in 1969]]
Singer had many literary influences. Besides the religious texts he studied, he grew up with a rich array of Jewish folktales and worldly Yiddish detective-stories about Max Spitzkopf and his assistant Fuchs by [[Jonas Kreppel]].{{Sfn | Tree | 2004 | p = 35}} He read Russian, including [[Dostoyevsky]]'s ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'' at the age of fourteen.{{Sfn|Singer|1963}} He wrote in memoirs about the importance of the Yiddish translations donated in book-crates from America, which he studied as a teenager in Bilgoraj: "I read everything: Stories, novels, plays, essays... I read [[Avrom Reyzen|Rajsen]], [[Strindberg]], Don Kaplanowitsch, [[Turgenev]], [[Tolstoy]], [[Maupassant]] and [[Chekhov]]."{{Sfn|Singer|1963}} He studied the philosophers [[Spinoza]],{{Sfn|Singer|1963}} [[Arthur Schopenhauer]],{{Sfn | Carr | 1992}} and [[Otto Weininger]].{{Sfn | Tree | 2004 | p = 68}} Among his Yiddish contemporaries, Singer considered his elder brother to be his greatest artistic example. He was also a life-long friend and admirer of the author and poet [[Aaron Zeitlin]].

His short stories, which some critics feel contain his most lasting contributions,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Searls |first=Damion |date=September 1, 2012 |title=A Guide to Isaac Bashevis Singer |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-guide-to-isaac-bashevis-singer/ |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en |quote=The opinion seems to have hardened into indisputable fact that Singer's stories are better than his novels, but I'm not convinced.}}</ref> were influenced by [[Anton Chekhov]] and [[Guy de Maupassant]]. From Maupassant, Singer developed a finely grained sense of drama. Like those of the French master, Singer's stories can pack enormous visceral excitement in the space of a few pages.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} From Chekhov, Singer developed his ability to draw characters of enormous complexity and dignity in the briefest of spaces.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} In the foreword to his personally selected volume of his finest short stories, Singer describes Chekhov, Maupassant, and "the sublime scribe of the [[Joseph (Genesis)|Joseph]] story in the Book of Genesis" as the masters of the short story form.{{sfn|Singer|1982|p=vii}}

Of his non-Yiddish-contemporaries, he was strongly influenced by the writings of [[Knut Hamsun]], many of whose works he later translated, while he had a more critical attitude towards [[Thomas Mann]], whose approach to writing he considered opposed to his own.{{Sfn | Tree | 2004 | p = 88}} Contrary to Hamsun's approach, Singer shaped his world not only with the egos of his characters, but also from Jewish moral tradition embodied by his father in the stories about Singer's youth. There was a dichotomy between the life his heroes lead and the life they feel they should lead—which gives his art a modernity his predecessors did not express. Singer's stories often involve highly individualist and anti-conformist characters rebelling alone against society. In a 1974 interview, Singer stated that "every human being, if he is a real, sensitive human being, feels quite isolated. It is only the people with very little individuality who always feel that they belong." He added that "Since I believe that the purpose of literature is to stress individuality, I also, unwillingly, stress human lonesomeness".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gilman |first1=Sander L. |last2=Singer |first2=Isaac Bashevis |date=1974 |title=Interview: Isaac Bashevis Singer |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/464611 |journal=Diacritics |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=30–33 |doi=10.2307/464611 |jstor=464611 |issn=0300-7162|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Singer's themes of witchcraft, mystery and legend draw on traditional sources, but they are contrasted with a modern and ironic consciousness. They are also concerned with the bizarre and the grotesque.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}}

An important strand of his art is intra-familial strife, which he experienced when taking refuge with his mother and younger brother at his uncle's home in Biłgoraj. This is the central theme in Singer's family chronicles such as ''The Family Moskat'' (1950), ''The Manor'' (1967), and ''The Estate'' (1969). Some critics believe these show the influence of Thomas Mann's novel ''[[Buddenbrooks]]''; Singer had translated Mann's ''Der Zauberberg'' (''[[The Magic Mountain]]'') into Yiddish as a young writer.

===Language===
Singer always wrote and published in Yiddish. His novels were serialized in newspapers, which also published his short stories. He edited his novels and stories for publication in English, which was used as the basis for translation into other languages. Some of Singer's stories and novels have not been translated.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Searls |first=Damion |date=September 1, 2012 |title=A Guide to Isaac Bashevis Singer |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-guide-to-isaac-bashevis-singer/ |access-date=April 26, 2022 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |quote=There are several novels still untranslated into English.}}</ref>

===Illustrators===
The artists who have illustrated Singer's novels, short stories, and children's books, include [[Raphael Soyer]], [[Maurice Sendak]], [[Larry Rivers]], and [[Irene Lieblich]]. Singer personally selected Lieblich to illustrate two of his books for children, ''A Tale of Three Wishes'' and ''The Power of Light: Eight Stories for Hanukkah,'' after seeing her paintings at an Artists Equity exhibition in New York City. A [[Holocaust]] survivor, Lieblich was from Zamosc, Poland, a town adjacent to the area where Singer was raised. As their memories of ''shtetl'' life were so similar, Singer found Lieblich's images ideally suited to illustrate his texts. Of her style, Singer wrote that "her works are rooted in Jewish folklore and are faithful to Jewish life and the Jewish spirit."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJ4qAQAAIAAJ&q=%22her+works+are+rooted+in+Jewish+folklore+and+are+faithful+to+Jewish+life+and+the+Jewish+spirit.%22 |title=The Pakn Treger |date=2002 |publisher=The Center |language=en}}</ref>

===Summary===
Singer published at least 18 novels, 14 children's books, a number of memoirs, essays and articles. He is best known as a writer of short stories, which have been published in more than a dozen collections. The first collection of Singer's short stories in English, ''[[Gimpel the Fool]]'', was published in 1957. The title story was translated by [[Saul Bellow]] and published in May 1953 in the ''[[Partisan Review]]''. Selections from Singer's "Varshavsky-stories" in the ''Daily Forward'' were later published in anthologies such as ''My Father's Court'' (1966). Later collections include ''A Crown of Feathers'' (1973), with notable masterpieces in between, such as ''The Spinoza of Market Street'' (1961) and ''A Friend of Kafka'' (1970). His stories and novels reflect the world of the East European Jewry in which he grew up. After his many years in America, his stories also portrayed the world of the immigrants and their pursuit of an elusive American dream, which seems always beyond reach.

Prior to Singer's winning the Nobel Prize, English translations of dozens of his stories were published in popular magazines like ''[[The New Yorker]],''<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer |url=https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/isaac-bashevis-singer |access-date=2024-04-08 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> ''[[Playboy (magazine)|Playboy]]'' and ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' that published literary works.

Singer was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978.<ref name=nobellecture>{{Citation |year=1978 |last=Singer |first=Isaac Bashevis |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1978/singer-lecture.html |publisher=Nobel prize |title=Lecture}}.</ref>

Between 1981 and 1989, Singer contributed articles to ''[[Moment (magazine)|Moment]]'', an independent magazine which focuses on the life of the American Jewish community.<ref>{{cite archive |first=Isaac |last=Bashevis Singer|item-url = http://search.opinionarchives.com/Moment_Web/digitalarchive.aspx |type=Textual Record |date=June 1981 to January 1989 |collection=Moment Magazine |institution=Opinion Archives |location=Digital Archives}}</ref>

===Film adaptations===
His novel ''[[Enemies, A Love Story]]'' was adapted as a [[Enemies, A Love Story (film)|film by the same name]] (1989) and was quite popular, bringing new readers to his work. It features a Holocaust survivor who deals with varying desires, complex family relationships, and a loss of faith.

Singer's story, "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" was adapted into [[Yentl (play)|a stage version]] by Leah Napolin (with Singer), which was the basis for the film ''[[Yentl (film)|Yentl]]'' (1983) starring and directed by [[Barbra Streisand]].

[[Alan Arkin]] starred as Yasha, the principal character in the film version of ''[[The Magician of Lublin (film)|The Magician of Lublin]]'' (1979), which also featured [[Shelley Winters]], [[Louise Fletcher]], [[Valerie Perrine]] and [[Lou Jacobi]]. In the final scene, Yasha achieves his lifelong ambition of being able to fly, though not as the magic trick he had originally planned.

Perhaps the most fascinating{{Sfn | Tree | 2004 | p = 161}} Singer-inspired film is ''Mr. Singer's Nightmare and Mrs. Pupkos Beard'' (1974) directed by [[Bruce Davidson (photographer)|Bruce Davidson]], a renowned photographer who became Singer's neighbor. This unique film is a half-hour mixture of documentary and fantasy for which Singer wrote the script and played the leading role.

The 2007 film ''[[Love Comes Lately]]'', starring [[Otto Tausig]], was adapted from several of Singer's stories.

==Views and opinions==
===Judaism===
Singer's relationship to Judaism was complex and unconventional. He identified as a skeptic and a loner, though he felt a connection to his Orthodox roots. Ultimately, he developed a view of religion and philosophy which he called "private mysticism". As he put it, "Since God was completely unknown and eternally silent, He could be endowed with whatever traits one elected to hang upon Him."<ref>Grace Farrell, ''Isaac Bashevis Singer: Conversations'', p. 236, University Press of Mississippi, 1992.</ref>{{Sfn | Singer | 1984 | p = 99}}

Singer was raised Orthodox and learned all the Jewish prayers, studied Hebrew and learned Torah and Talmud. As he recounted in the autobiographical short story "In My Father's Court", he broke away from his parents in his early twenties. Influenced by his older brother, who had done the same, he began spending time with non-religious bohemian artists in Warsaw. Although Singer believed in a God, as in traditional Judaism, he stopped attending Jewish religious services of any kind, even on the High Holy Days. He struggled throughout his life with the feeling that a kind and compassionate God would never support the great suffering he saw around him, especially the [[Holocaust]] deaths of so many of the Polish Jews from his childhood. In one interview with the photographer Richard Kaplan, he said, "I am angry at God because of what happened to my brothers": Singer's older brother died suddenly in February 1944, in New York, of a [[thrombosis]]; his younger brother perished in Soviet Russia around 1945, after being deported with his mother and wife to Southern [[Kazakhstan]] in Stalin's purges.

Despite the complexities of his religious outlook, Singer lived in the midst of the Jewish community throughout his life. He did not seem to be comfortable unless he was surrounded by Jews; particularly Jews born in Europe. Although he spoke English, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], and [[Polish language|Polish]] fluently, he always considered [[Yiddish]] his natural tongue. He always wrote in Yiddish and he was the last notable American author to be writing in this language.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}} After he had achieved success as a writer in New York, Singer and his wife began spending time during the winters in Miami with its Jewish community, many of them New Yorkers.

Eventually, as senior citizens, they moved to Miami. They identified closely with the [[Ashkenazi]] Jewish community. After his death, Singer was buried in a traditional Jewish ceremony in [[Cedar Park Cemetery, New Jersey|Cedar Park Cemetery]], a Jewish cemetery in [[Paramus, New Jersey]].

===Vegetarianism===
Singer was a prominent [[Jewish vegetarian]]<ref>{{Citation |publisher=IVU |url=http://www.ivu.org/history/northam20b/singer.html |title=History of Vegetarianism |contribution=Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) |access-date=February 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222210007/http://www.ivu.org/history/northam20b/singer.html |archive-date=December 22, 2008 |url-status=dead}}.</ref> for the last 35 years of his life and often included vegetarian themes in his works. In his short story "The Slaughterer", he described the anguish of an appointed slaughterer trying to reconcile his compassion for animals with his job of killing them. He felt that the ingestion of meat was a denial of all ideals and all religions: "How can we speak of right and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood?" When asked if he had become a vegetarian for health reasons, he replied: "I did it for the health of the chickens."

Vegetarianism is a recurrent theme in Singer's novel ''Enemies, a Love Story''. One character, a Holocaust survivor, declares that "God himself eats meat—human flesh. There are no vegetarians—none. If you had seen what I have seen, you would know that God approves of slaughter,"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Isaac Bashevis |title=Enemies, a Love Story |publisher=Noonday Press |year=1972 |isbn=0374515220 |pages=33}}</ref> and another character points out "that what the Nazis had done to the Jews, man was doing to animals."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Isaac Bashevis |title=Enemies, a Love Story |publisher=Noonday Press |year=1972 |isbn=0374515220 |pages=145}}</ref> In ''The Letter Writer'', Singer wrote "In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]],"{{Sfn | Singer| 1982|p = 271}} which became a classic reference in the [[Holocaust analogy in animal rights|comparison of animal exploitation with the Holocaust]].<ref name=Patterson>Patterson, Charles (2002). ''[[Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust]]''. New York: Lantern Books, pp. 181–188.</ref>

In the preface to Steven Rosen's ''Food for Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions'' (1986), Singer wrote, "When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent. I can never accept inconsistency or injustice. Even if it comes from God. If there would come a voice from God saying, 'I'm against vegetarianism!' I would say, 'Well, I am for it!' This is how strongly I feel in this regard."

===Politics===
Singer described himself as "[[conservative]]," adding that "I don't believe by flattering the masses all the time we really achieve much."<ref>{{Citation |jstor=25304019 |volume=31 |number=4 |date=Spring 1980 |page=57 |last1=Burgin |first1=Richard |title=A Conversation with Isaac Bashevis Singer |journal=Chicago Review |last2=Singer |first2=Isaac Bashevis |doi=10.2307/25304019|hdl=2027/spo.act2080.0017.002 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> His conservative side was most apparent in his Yiddish writing and journalism, where he was openly hostile to [[Marxist]] sociopolitical agendas. In ''[[Forverts]]'' he once wrote, "It may seem like terrible ''apikorses'' [heresy], but conservative governments in America, England, France, have handled Jews no worse than liberal governments.... The Jew's worst enemies were always those elements that the modern Jew convinced himself (really hypnotized himself) were his friends."<ref name=yivo>{{Citation |url=http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Singer_Isaac_Bashevis |contribution=Singer, Isaac Bashevis |title=The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe}}.</ref>{{Sfn|Hadda|1997|pp=137–38}}

===Zionism===
[[File:The typewriter of Isaac Beshevis Singer.jpg|thumb|The typewriter that Singer used during his visits to Israel in the 1970s]]Issac Bashevis was ambivalent on the question of [[Zionism]], and he viewed the immigration of Jews to Palestine critically. As a Polish Jew from Warsaw, he was historically confronted with the question of the Jewish fate during Nazi persecution. He exercised social responsibility towards the immigration of European and American Jewish groups to Israel after [[World War II]]. Strictly based on Jewish family doctrine rather than politics and socialism, his former partner Runya Pontsch and his son Israel Zamir immigrated to Palestine in 1938, in order to live a typical [[kibbutz]] life there. In his story ''The Certificate'' (1967), which has autobiographical character, he fictionalizes this question from a time in the mid-1920s when he was himself considering moving to the [[British Mandate Palestine]]. The protagonist of the story decides to leave Palestine, however, to move back into his shtetl. For Singer then, Zionism becomes the "road not taken". However, through his journalistic assignments in late 1955, Singer made his first trip to Israel, accompanied by his wife Alma. Describing the trip to his Yiddish readers, he introduces the world for the first time to the young state of Israel. In a change of mind, he then describes the Land of Israel as a "reality, and part of everyday life." Interestingly enough, he notes the cultural tensions between [[Sephardic]] and [[Ashkenazi]] Jewish people during the boat trip from [[Naples]] to [[Haifa]] and during his stay in the new nation. With the description of Jewish immigration camps in the new land, he foresaw the difficulties and socio-economic tensions in Israel, and hence turned back to his critical views of Zionism. He scrutinized the ideology further, as he was advancing his thought of critical Zionism.<ref name="lareviewofbooks_20180612">{{Cite web
|title=Faith in Place: Isaac Bashevis Singer in Israel
|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/faith-place-isaac-bashevis-singer-israel
|author=David Stromberg
|website=L.A. Review of Books
|access-date=2021-05-13
|date=2018-06-12
}}</ref><ref name="nytimes_19751102">{{Cite web
|title=Isaac Bashevis Singer, also known as 'I'
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/02/archives/isaac-bashevis-singer-also-known-as-i-passions.html
|first=Roger
|last=Sale
|website=The New York Times
|access-date=2021-05-13
|date=1975-11-02
}}</ref>

Singer was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group.<ref name="jta_19760810">{{Cite web
|title=GOP Platform Committee Urged to Give Support to Israel 
|url=https://www.jta.org/archive/gop-platform-committee-urged-to-give-support-to-israel
|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency
|access-date=2021-05-13
|date=1976-08-10
}}</ref> In 1984, he signed a letter protesting German arms sales to [[Saudi Arabia]].<ref name="jta_19840131">{{Cite web
|title=Jewish Groups, Writers and Artists Join in a Campaign Urging Germany to Reconsider Arms Sales to Sau |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/jewish-groups-writers-and-artists-join-in-a-campaign-urging-germany-to-reconsider-arms-sales-to-sau
|access-date=2025-03-30
|date=1984-01-31
|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency
|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Legacy and honors==
* [[Jewish Book Council]] for ''The Slave'', 1963<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners |title=Past Winners |website=Jewish Book Council |language=en|access-date=January 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308182757/https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners|archive-date=March 8, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Itzik Manger Prize]], 1973<ref>{{cite journal |title=Rebellion and Creativity: Contextualizing Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Author's Note" to The Penitent |last=Stromberg |first=David |journal=In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies |date=June 13, 2016 |url=https://ingeveb.org/articles/rebellion-and-creativity-isaac-bashevis-singer}}</ref>
* [[National Book Award|National Book Award (United States)]] twice: ''A Day of Pleasure'', 1970;<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1970/| title= National Book Awards 1970| publisher= National Book Foundation| website= nationalbook.org| date= | access-date= February 7, 2025}}</ref> ''A Crown of Feathers'', 1974<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1974/| title= National Book Awards 1974| publisher= National Book Foundation| website= nationalbook.org| date= | access-date= February 7, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.nbafictionblog.org/nba-winning-books-blog/1974-1.html |title= 1974| website= nbafictionblog.org | publisher= National Book Foundation| date= August 1, 2009 | first= | last= | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170815081220/http://www.nbafictionblog.org/nba-winning-books-blog/1974-1.html |archivedate=August 15, 2017| access-date= February 7, 2025}}</ref> 
* [[Nobel Prize for Literature]], 1978
* A street in [[Surfside, Florida]], named in his honor
* A street in New York City named in his honor (W. 86th St.)
* A street in [[Leoncin]], Poland, named in his honor (ul. Isaaca Bashevisa Singera)
* A [[commemorative plaque]] attached to a front wall of a building where Singer and his family resided in [[Radzymin]], Poland (ul. Stary Rynek 7, 05-250 Radzymin)
* A park square in Radzymin, named in his honor (skwer im. Isaaca Bashevisa Singera)
* A city square in [[Lublin]], Poland, a hometown of the protagonist of ''The Magician of Lublin'' novel, named in writer's honor (pl. Isaaka Singera)
* A street in [[Biłgoraj]], Poland, named in his honor (ul. Isaaca Bashevisa Singera)
* A street in [[Tel Aviv]], Israel<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.betalfa.org.il/images/fun/zinger3.jpg| title = His son Israel Zamir in the inauguration| access-date = June 26, 2021| archive-date = June 26, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210626110405/http://www.betalfa.org.il/images/fun/zinger3.jpg| url-status = dead}}</ref> 
* An academic scholarship for undergraduate study at the [[University of Miami]], named in his honor<ref name= scholarship>{{cite web| url= https://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/isaac-bashevis-singer/ | title= Isaac Bashevis Singer Scholarship| website= miami.edu| publisher= University of Miami| date= | access-date= February 7, 2025}}</ref>
* The Jewish-American Hall of Fame<ref name= "Jewish Am Hall Fame">{{Cite web|title= Literature Honoree ― Isaac Bashevis Singer ― The Jewish-American Hall of Fame |publisher= The [[American Jewish Historical Society]] & The [[American Numismatic Society]]| website= amuseum.org| date= | url=http://amuseum.org/index.php/literature-honorees-singer/ |language=en-US |access-date=2025-02-07}}</ref>

Singer is the only American Nobel Laureate in Literature not to receive a [[Pulitzer Prize]] award or citation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1930 |url= https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1930/lewis/facts/?utm_source=chatgpt.com |access-date=2024-12-13 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Published works==
'''Note:''' Publication dates refer to English editions, not the Yiddish originals, which often predate the versions in translation by 10 to 20 years.

===Novels ===
* ''[[Satan in Goray]]'' (serialized: 1933, book: 1935)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|דער שטן אין גאריי}}
* ''Eulogy to a Shoelace''—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|די קלײנע שוסטערלעך}}
* ''[[The Family Moskat]]'' (1950)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|די פאמיליע מושקאט}}
* ''[[The Magician of Lublin (novel)|The Magician of Lublin]]'' (1960)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|דער קונצנמאכער פון לובלין}}
* ''[[The Slave (Singer novel)|The Slave]]'' (1962)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|דער קנעכט}}
* ''[[The Manor (novel)|The Manor]]'' (1967)
* ''[[The Estate (Singer novel)|The Estate]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Enemies, a Love Story]]'' (1972)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|שׂונאים. געשיכטע פֿון אַ ליבע}}
* ''[[Shosha (novel)|Shosha]]'' (1978)
* ''Reaches of Heaven: A Story of the Baal Shem Tov'' (1980)
* ''[[The Penitent (novel)|The Penitent]]'' (1983)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|דער בעל תשובה}}
* ''Teibele and Her Demon'' (1983) (play)
* ''The King of the Fields'' (1988)
* ''Scum'' (1991)
* ''[[The Certificate]]'' (1992)<ref name="oxfordscholarship.com">{{cite book| url = http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112030.001.0001/acprof-9780195112030-chapter-13| title = The Perils of Translation: Isaac Bashevis Singer| chapter = The Perils of Translation: Isaac Bashevis Singer in English and Hebrew| year = 1997| publisher = Oxford University Press| doi = 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112030.003.0013| isbn = 978-0-19-511203-0| last1 = Mendelsohn| first1 = Ezra| pages = 228–233}}</ref>
* ''Meshugah'' (1994)<ref name="oxfordscholarship.com"/>
* ''[[Shadows on the Hudson]]'' (1997)

===Short story collections===
* ''Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories'' (1957)—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|גימפּל תּם}}
* ''The Spinoza of Market Street'' (1961)
* ''Short Friday and Other Stories'' (1963)
* {{cite book <!-- this is required by referencing, do not convert to text --> |last=Singer |display-authors=0 |title=The Séance and Other Stories |date=1968a}}
* ''A Friend of Kafka and Other Stories'' (1970)
* ''[[A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories]]'' (1974)—shared the National Book Award, fiction, with ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'' by [[Thomas Pynchon]]<ref name=nba1974>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1974 "National Book Awards – 1974"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-26.<br />With essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.</ref>
* ''Passions and Other Stories'' (1975)
* ''Old Love'' (1979)
* {{cite book <!-- this is required by referencing, do not convert to text --> |last=Singer |display-authors=0 |title=The Collected Stories |date=1982}}
* ''The Image and Other Stories'' (1985)
* ''The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories'' (1988)

===Juvenile literature===
* ''[[Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories]]'', illustrated by [[Maurice Sendak]] (1966) – runner up for the [[Newbery Medal]] (Newbery Honor Book)<ref name=newbery>[http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922–Present"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111024135429/http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal.cfm |date=October 24, 2011 }}. [[Association for Library Service to Children]]. ALA. Retrieved April 19, 2012.</ref>
* ''Mazel and Shlimazel'', illus. [[Margot Zemach]] (1967)
* ''The Fearsome Inn'', illus. [[Nonny Hogrogian]] (1967) – Newbery Honor Book<ref name=newbery/>
* ''[[When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories]]'', illus. Margot Zemach (1968) – [[Newbery Medal|Newbery Honor Book]]<ref name = newbery />—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|ווען שלימואל איז געגאנגען קיין ווארשע}}
* ''[[The Golem (Singer novel)|The Golem]]'', illus. [[Uri Shulevitz]] (1969)
* ''Elijah the Slave: A Hebrew Legend Retold'', illus. [[Antonio Frasconi]] (1970)
* ''Joseph and Koza: or the Sacrifice to the Vistula'', illus. [[Symeon Shimin]] (1970)
* ''Alone in the Wild Forest'', illus. Margot Zemach (1971)
* ''The Topsy-Turvy Emperor of China'', illus. [[William Pène du Bois]] (1971)
* ''The Wicked City'', illus. [[Leonard Everett Fisher]] (1972)
* ''The Fools of Chelm and Their History'', illus. Uri Shulevitz (1973)
* ''Why Noah Chose the Dove'', illus. [[Eric Carle]] (1974)
* ''A Tale of Three Wishes'', illus. [[Irene Lieblich]] (1975)
* ''Naftali the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus'', illus. Margot Zemach (1976)
* ''The Power of Light – Eight Stories for Hanukkah'', illus. Irene Lieblich (1980)
* ''Yentl the Yeshiva Boy'', illus. Uri Shulevitz (1983)
* ''Stories for Children'' (1984) – collection
* ''Shrew Todie and Lyzer the Miser and Other Children's Stories'' (1994)
* ''The Parakeet Named Dreidel'' (2015)

===Nonfiction===
* ''The Hasidim'' (1973)

===Autobiographical writings===
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=In My Father's Court | orig-year = 1963 |place=NY |publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux |year=1967}}—Yiddish original: {{Lang|yi|מיין טאטנ'ס בית דין שטוב}}
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=A Day of Pleasure, Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1969}}. National Book Award, Children's Literature<ref name= nba1970>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1970 "National Book Awards – 1970"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved February 8, 2012.</ref>
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=A Little Boy in Search of God |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1976}}.
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=A Young Man in Search of Love |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1978}}.
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=Lost in America |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1981}}.
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=Love and exile |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1984}}.
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=More Stories from My Father's Court |place=NY |publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux |year=1999}}

===Short stories===
* {{Citation |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=The New Winds |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |place=NY |year=1963}}.
* {{Citation |journal=The Hudson Review, 20th Anniversary Issue |title=Zeitl and Rickel |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |others=[[Mirra Ginsburg]] transl. |volume=21 |number=1 |date=Spring 1968 |pages=127–37 |jstor=3849538 |doi=10.2307/3849538}}.

===Collected works===
* {{Citation | editor-last = Stavans | editor-first = Ilan |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=Stories |volume=1 |publisher=[[Library of America]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-931082-61-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781931082617}}.
* {{Citation | editor-last = Stavans | editor-first = Ilan |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=Stories |volume=2 |publisher=[[Library of America]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-931082-62-4 | author-mask = 3 | editor-mask = 3 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781931082624}}.
* {{Citation | editor-last = Stavans | editor-first = Ilan |first=Isaac Bashevis |last=Singer |title=Stories |volume=3 |publisher=[[Library of America]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-931082-63-1 | author-mask = 3 | editor-mask = 3 | url-access = registration |url=https://archive.org/details/collectedstories0000sing}}.

===Films and stage productions based on Singer's work===
* ''[[Enemies, A Love Story (film)|Enemies, A Love Story]]'' (1989)
* ''[[Love Comes Lately]]'' (2007)
* ''[[The Magician of Lublin (film)|The Magician of Lublin]]'' (1979)
* ''[[Yentl (film)|Yentl]]'' (1983)
* ''Mr. Singer's Nightmare or Mrs. Pupkos Beard''<ref>[http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/warsaw/w_pages/warsaw_stories_singer.html "Warsaw Stories"] (various reprints beginning with a version of this biography). Eilat Gordin Levitan.</ref>
* ''[[Fool's Paradise (opera)|Fool's Paradise]]''

==See also==
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
* [[Jewish vegetarianism]]
* [[List of animal rights advocates]]
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]
* [[List of Poles#Prose literature|List of Poles]]
* [[Yiddish literature|Yiddish Literature]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Citation |first=Anthony |last=Burgess |title=Rencontre au Sommet |place=Paris |publisher=Éd. Mille et une nuits |year=1998 |language=fr| title-link = Rencontre au Sommet}}.
* Richard Burgin. ''Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer''. NY: Doubleday, 1985.
* {{Citation |first=Maurice |last=Carr |title=My Uncle Itzhak: A Memoir of I.B. Singer |journal=Commentary |date=December 1992}}.
* Lester Goran. ''The Bright Streets of Surfside: The Memoir of a Friendship with Isaac Bashevis Singer''. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1994.
* {{Citation |first=Janet |last=Hadda |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer: A Life |place=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997}}.
* {{Citation |first=Paul |last=Kresh |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Magician of West 86th Street |place=New York |publisher=Dial Press |year=1979}}.
* Roberta Saltzman. ''Isaac Bashevis Singer: a bibliography of his works in Yiddish and English, 1960–1991''. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-8108-4315-3}}
* Dorothea Straus. ''Under the Canopy''. New York: George Braziller, 1982. {{ISBN|0-8076-1028-3}}
* [[Florence Noiville]]. ''Isaac B. Singer, A Life'', [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]], 2006
* Olidort, Shoshana. "Proverbial Language and Literary Truth in the Work of Isaac Bashevis Singer." ''Prooftexts'' 38, no. 3 (2021): 510-531.
* {{cite book |first=Dvorah |last=Telushkin |title=Master of Dreams: A Memoir of Isaac Bashevis Singer |location=New York |publisher=Morrow |date=1997}}
* {{Citation |first=Stephen |last=Tree |title=Isaac Bashevis Singer |place=Munich |year=2004 |publisher=DTV Deutscher Taschenbuch |isbn=978-3423244152}}.
* [[Agata Tuszyńska]]. ''[https://archive.org/details/lostlandscapesin00tusz  Lost Landscapes: In Search of Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Jews of Poland.]'' New York: Morrow, 1998. Hardcover. {{ISBN|0688122140}} via Google Books, preview.
* {{Citation | editor-first = Seth L | editor-last = Wolitz |title=The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer |place=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2001}}.
* Israel Zamir. ''Journey to My Father, Isaac Bashevis Singer''. New York: Arcade 1995.
* [[Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm]] ''The Roots Are Polish''. Toronto: Canadian-Polish Research Institute, 2004. {{ISBN|0-920517-05-6}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*{{official website|https://www.bashevissinger.com/}}
* {{find a Grave|5780}}
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/isaac-bashevis-singer-about-isaac-bashevis-singer/706/ American Masters]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081020083249/http://singer100.loa.org/ Singer page at Library of America]
* [http://www.parisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/4242 ''The Paris Review'' Interview with Isaac Bashevis Singer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305005608/http://www.parisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/4242 |date=March 5, 2010 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120419052440/http://research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/singer.hp.html Isaac Bashevis Singer Collection] at the [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ Harry Ransom Center] at [[The University of Texas at Austin]]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=Td7xGID0IhQC Snger's Biography by Florence Noiville at Google Books]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121021093813/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Zlateh-Goat-Other-Stories/?isbn=9780064401470 ''Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories'']
* [http://jewishhistorylectures.org/2013/06/13/isaac-bashevis-singer-singer-in-the-shtetl-the-shtetl-in-singer-2004-lecture/ Video Lecture on Isaac Bashevis Singer: Singer in the Shtetl, the Shtetl in Singer] by [[Henry Abramson|Dr. Henry Abramson]] of [[Touro College South]]
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079288 Finding aid to Isaac Bashevis Singer manuscripts at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

{{Isaac Bashevis Singer}}
{{NBA for Fiction 1950–1974}}
{{Bancarella Prize}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1978 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Vegetarianism}}
{{Animal rights}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singer, Isaac Bashevis}}
[[Category:Isaac Bashevis Singer| ]]
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American memoirists]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century American translators]]
[[Category:American autobiographers]]
[[Category:American children's writers]]
[[Category:American male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:Bancarella Prize winners]]
[[Category:Bard College faculty]]
[[Category:Burials at Cedar Park Cemetery, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Itzik Manger Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Jewish American novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish American short story writers]]
[[Category:Jewish vegetarianism]]
[[Category:Jews who emigrated to escape Nazism]]
[[Category:Magical realism writers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]] <!--winner of the adult Fiction prize too -->
[[Category:Newbery Honor winners]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners]]
[[Category:People from Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki County]]
[[Category:People from Radzymin]]
[[Category:People from the Lower East Side]]
[[Category:People from the Upper West Side]]
[[Category:People from Surfside, Florida]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]
[[Category:People from Warsaw Governorate]]
[[Category:Polish children's writers]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Polish Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Yiddish-speaking people]]
[[Category:Translators from Yiddish]]
[[Category:Yiddish–English translators]]
[[Category:Yiddish-language novelists]]
[[Category:Yiddish-language satirists]]
[[Category:American satirical novelists]]
[[Category:Israeli satirists]]
[[Category:Israeli satirical novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish Nobel laureates]]