Irving Howe

Irving Howe ( born June 11, 1920 in New York City; † May 5, 1993 ) was an American literary scholar and professor.

Life

He holds a degree in English literature at City College in New York City and took part as a soldier in World War II. Back in civilian life in New York, he earned his living with kulturjournalististischen work for the then influential Partisan Review. From 1953 to 1963 he has taught at the Universities of Brandeis and Stanford. He received in 1963 a professor of English at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Howe gained great contributions to the publication and translation of Yiddish literature into English. Among other things, he led the first transfer of the work Isaac Bashevis Singer in Partisan Review. He published the works of George Gissing, Edith Wharton, Leon Trotsky and George Orwell. From 1953 on, he was editor of the magazine Dissent, whose founders he belonged.

His book reviews and essays appeared in numerous intellectual magazines, including Commentary, Politics, The Nation, The New Republic and The New York Review of Books. He was counted among the leading minds of the New York Intellectuals.

In 1987 he was MacArthur Fellow.

Works (selection)

  • A World More Attractive: A View of Modern Literature and Politics ( 1963)
  • World of Our Fathers (1976 )
  • Celebrations and Attacks essays and literary criticism (1979 )
  • A Margin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiography (1982 )

Publisher

  • Favorite Yiddish Stories ( 1974 with Eliezer Greenberg)
  • The Best of Shalom Aleichem ( 1979, with Ruth R. Wisse )
  • The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse (1987 )
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