David Herman
The Great Jewish-American Writers of the 1930s: Mike Gold, Henry Roth, Delmore Schwartz and Nathanael West
Summary
During the 1930s a new generation of Jewish-American writers exploded on the scene, writing about the experience of immigration. These included Mike Gold (‘Jews Without Money’), Henry Roth (‘Call It Sleep’), Delmore Schwartz (‘In Dreams Begin Responsibilities’) and Nathanael West (‘The Day of the Locust’). Despite being underrated in their lifetimes, and with the exception of West, these writers have been rediscovered over the past half century. In this talk, David Herman argues that they were all significant writers who deserve greater appreciation.
David Herman
David Herman is a freelance writer based in London. Over the past 20 years he has written almost a thousand articles, essays, and reviews on Jewish history and literature for publications including the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Quarterly, Jewish Renaissance, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Prospect. He has taught courses on Jewish culture for the London Jewish Cultural Centre and JW3. He is a regular contributor to Jewish Book Week, the Association of Jewish Refugees, and the Insiders/Outsiders Festival on the contribution of Jewish refugees to British culture.
My goodness, that is a question and a half. How long have we got? Well, we’ve got about 12 minutes. So let’s see. Great writing can be many things obviously. It can be a great story and a great plot. It can have great drama. And sometimes, it’s just about great images and sentences. The story may not work, the plot may not engage us. But there are particular sentences like Henry Roth’s description of the Statue of Liberty, which just stop us in our tracks and leave us gasping. So I would say, if you’ve got any of these, plus taking on great issues, Philip Roth wrote great novels full of great writing, but also about big questions.