Daniel Walden

Dictionary of Literary Biography: Twentieth Cententury American-jewish Writers Daniel Walden

Of primary importance to the first Jews arriving in the United States was reconciling their old-country culture with that of the New World. The American-Jewish writer of the time wrote of himself, his people, anti-Semitism and the attempt to understand a new society. By the 1920s, Jewish writers thought of themselves as American Jews and they wrote of their rebellion against traditional values. The 1930s brought Jewish writers into prominence in literature-and their works concentrated on the attempts of people to identify with the poor and oppressed. In the second half of the 20th-century, American-Jewish writers began tackling the expansive topic of the Jewish experience in America. Since the 1970s, these authors have emerged as a group that writes out of a sense of ongoing Jewish identification. 51 entries include: Saul Bellow, Abraham Cahan, Arthur Cohen, E. L. Doctorow, Edna Ferber, Joseph Heller, Erica Jong, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, Philip Roth, Isaac Bashemis Singer, Lionel Trilling and Nathanael Vest.