Ludwig Lewisohn
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Ludwig Lewisohn (May 30, 1882 – December 31, 1955) was a novelist, literary critic, the drama critic for ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'' and then its associate editor. He was the editor of the New Palestine, an American Zionist journal. He taught at the University of Wisconsin and at Ohio State University as well as serving as professor of German and Comparative Literature at Brandeis University. Lewisohn produced some 40 full-length fiction and non-fiction books, nearly as many translations, wrote numerous magazine and journal articles and edited countless other written works.


Biography

Lewisohn was born in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, Germany to a highly assimilated, upper-middle class Jewish family. His parents Jacques Lewisohn and Minna (Eloesser) immigrated to the United States in 1890. The family settled in St. Matthews, South Carolina and then in 1892 moved to Charleston. Lewisohn's mother was the daughter of a rabbi, but when the family moved to America they settled in an area where there was not a practicing Jewish congregation. He was sent to a Methodist Sunday school to improve his English. He integrated well into the Methodist community and its church and subsequently became an active Methodist. After graduating with honors from the
College of Charleston The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th oldest institution of higher learning in the Unit ...
, he went to
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1902 to continue with graduate work. He received the degree of A.M. in 1903. In 1904 he was told by his advisers that a Jew would never be hired to teach English literature at an American university. The bitter irony in this advice led Lewisohn to return to Judaism and he became an outspoken critic of American Jewish assimilation. In 1948 Lewisohn was among the founding faculty members of
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...
where he taught until his death. Following his graduation from Columbia, Lewisohn worked for Doubleday, Page & Co. in New York as a member of the editorial staff. The following year, 1905, he left Doubleday to become a free-lance magazine writer. In 1910, with the strong recommendation of his close friend
William Ellery Leonard William Ellery Leonard (January 25, 1876, in Plainfield, New Jersey – May 2, 1944, in Madison, Wisconsin) was an American poet, playwright, translator, and literary scholar. Early life William Ellery Channing Leonard was born on the family ho ...
he became an instructor of German at the University of Wisconsin. He remained there for one year and then accepted the position of professor of German language and literature at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
. He served at the University until 1917 when war time sentiments forced his separation. Upon leaving Ohio State University Lewisohn became drama critic at ''the Nation'' and then was promoted to associate editor in 1920. He continued to write for ''The Nation'' until 1924. He translated from the German into English works of
Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He rece ...
,
Jakob Wassermann __NOTOC__ Jakob Wassermann (10 March 1873 – 1 January 1934) was a German writer and novelist. Life Born in Fürth, Wassermann was the son of a shopkeeper and lost his mother at an early age. He showed literary interest early and published v ...
and
Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian- Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''The For ...
. In 1943 he became the editor of The New Palestine (magazine), working with them until 1948. He then began his work at Brandeis University. Lewisohn was a member of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences and was an honorary secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. Lewisohn strongly supported the Zionist cause and he lectured and wrote widely on its behalf.


Personal life

When he first came to Columbia, Lewisohn had an affair with
George Sylvester Viereck George Sylvester Viereck (December 31, 1884 – March 18, 1962) was a German-American poet, writer, and pro-German propagandist, latterly on behalf of the German Nazi government. Biography Early life Sylvester's father, Louis Viereck, was born ...
. He was married three times; to Mary Arnold in 1906, to Edna Manley in 1940 and to Louise Wolk in 1944. His first two marriages ended in divorce and he was survived in death by his third wife. Lewisohn also had a son, James Elias Lewisohn, by Thelma Spear, a concert singer with whom he had lived and had a relationship with for many years. Spear actually burst in on his wedding to Edna Manley at a Baltimore synagogue, insisting that he first marry and then divorce her or she would sue him for bigamy. Lewisohn died in Miami Beach, Florida on December 31, 1955.


Selective Bibliography

* ''The Broken Snare'' (1908) * ''A Night in Alexandria'' (1909) * ''Up Stream'' (1922) * ''The Creative Life'' (1924) * ''Israel'' (1925) * ''The Case of Mr. Crump'' (1926) * ''The Island Within'' (1928) * ''Expression in America'' (1931) * ''The Last Days of Shylock'' (1931) Illustrated by Arthur Szyk * ''Rebirth'' (1935) * ''Trumpet of Jubilee'' (1937) * He commented on: "The Jew and the Book", in Samuel Caplan and Harold U. Ribalow, ed., ''The Great Jewish Books'' (New York , Horizon, 1952), pp. 11–17.


References


External links

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Ludwig Lewisohn Collection, 1883-1955

Rebirth - A Book of Modern Jewish Thought

Ludwig Lewisohn short biographie (German)

Tablet Magazine: Comeback Kid

Jewish Ideas Daily: Retrieving American Fiction: Ludwig Lewisohn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewisohn, Ludwig 1882 births 1955 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American translators German emigrants to the United States Brandeis University faculty College of Charleston alumni Columbia University alumni Writers from Charleston, South Carolina Novelists from Massachusetts American Zionists Jewish American novelists American people of German-Jewish descent Analysands of A. A. Brill 20th-century translators Novelists from South Carolina 20th-century American male writers