Schocken Books is a book publishing

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by

Salman Schocken Salman Schocken or Shlomo Zalman Schocken ( he, שלמה זלמן שוקן) (October 30, 1877 August 6, 1959) was a German Jewish publisher, and co-founder of the large Kaufhaus Schocken chain of department stores in Germany. Stripped of his citi ...

as Schocken Verlag in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, the company later moved to Palestine and then the United States, and was acquired by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in 1987.

History

Schocken Books was founded in 1931 by Schocken Department Store owner Salman Schocken. Schocken has published the writings of

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...

, Franz Rosenzweig,

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

and S. Y. Agnon, among others.Salman Schocken: Forefather of Haaretz Newspaper and a Modernist in Love With Tradition
/ref> After being shut down by the Germans in 1939, Schocken, who

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

from Germany to Palestine in 1934, founded the Hebrew-language ''Schocken Publishing House'' in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

. Schocken moved to the United States in 1940. In 1945 he founded the English-language Schocken Books in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1987 it was bought up by Random House. Schocken Books continues to publish Jewish literary works.

Selected English publications

Franz Kafka

* ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and p ...

'' * '' The Castle'' * '' Amerika'' * '' The Diaries 1910-1923'' * ''

Letters to Felice ''Letters to Felice'' is a book collecting some of Franz Kafka's letters to Felice Bauer from 1912 to 1917. Schocken Books acquired these letters from Felice Bauer in 1955, in addition to roughly half of Kafka's letters to Grete Bloch, Bauer's ...

'' * '' Letters to Ottla'' * ''

Letters to Milena ''Letters to Milena'' is a book collecting some of Franz Kafka's letters to Milena Jesenská from 1920 to 1923. Publication history The letters were originally published in German in 1952 as ''Briefe an Milena'', edited by Willy Haas, who decided ...

'' * '' Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors'' * '' The Complete Stories'' * ''

The Sons ''The Sons'' is a collection of stories by Franz Kafka. In 1913 Kafka wrote to his publisher Kurt Wolff requesting that three of his stories be placed in a single volume: "''The Stoker'', ''The Metamorphosis'', and ''The Judgment'' belong t ...

'' * '' The Penal Colony'' * '' The Great Wall of China'' * ''

Dearest Father Dearest may refer to: * ''Dearest'' (2012 film) ('' Anata e''), a 2012 Japanese film directed by Yasuo Furuhata * ''Dearest'' (2014 film) (''Qin Ai De''), a 2014 Chinese film directed by Peter Chan * "Dearest" (Ayumi Hamasaki song) * ''Dearest'' ...

'' :Bilingual Editions * ''

The Metamorphosis ''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...

'' * ''

Parables and Paradoxes ''Parables and Paradoxes'' (''Parabeln und Paradoxe'') is a bilingual edition of selected writings by Franz Kafka edited by Nahum N. Glatzer (Schocken Books, 1961). In this volume of collected pieces, Kafka re-examines and rewrites some basic myth ...

'' * ''

Letter to His Father ''Letter to His Father'' (german: Brief an den Vater) is the name usually given to the letter Franz Kafka wrote to his father Hermann in November 1919, indicting Hermann for his emotionally abusive and hypocritical behavior towards his son. Kafk ...

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...

* ''Illuminations'' * ''Reflections''

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem () (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kaballah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish Myst ...

* ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' * ''The Messianic Idea in Judaism'' * ''On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead'' * ''On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism'' * ''Zohar: The Book of Splendor''

Hannah Arendt

* ''The Promise of Politics'' * ''The Jewish Writings'' * ''Responsibility and Judgment'' * ''Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954'' * ''

The Origins of Totalitarianism ''The Origins of Totalitarianism'', published in 1951, was Hannah Arendt's first major work, wherein she describes and analyzes Nazism and Stalinism as the major totalitarian political movements of the first half of the 20th century. History ...

Elie Wiesel

* ''The Time of the Uprooted'' * ''Somewhere a Master'' * ''Wise Men and Their Tales'' * ''The Judges'' * ''Legends of Our Time'' * ''After the Darkness'' * ''And the Sea Is Never Full'' * ''The Testament'' * ''The Fifth Son'' * ''A Beggar in Jerusalem'' * ''All Rivers Run to the Sea'' * ''The Trial of God'' * ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...

'' * '' The Gates of the Forest'' * ''The Town Beyond the Wall'' * '' The Forgotten'' * ''From the Kingdom of Memory'' * ''

The Oath The Oath may refer to: Books * ''The Oath'' (Wiesel novel), a 1973 novel by Elie Wiesel * ''The Oath'' (Peretti novel), a 1995 novel by Frank E. Peretti * '' The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court'', a 2012 book by Jeffrey Toobin ...

'' * ''Rashi''

References

External links

*
A Conversation about Schocken Books - Part I
- Katharine McNamara talks with Altie Karper.

- Katharine McNamara talks with Susan Ralston.

- Katharine McNamara talks with Arthur Samuelson. *
Schocken Publishing House Ltd.
a
Database – Jewish Publishers of German Literature in Exile, 1933-1945
{{Literature in Israel Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Franz Kafka Jewish German history Jewish printing and publishing Publishing companies established in 1931