Sulamith Ish-Kishor

Sulamith Ish-kishor (1896 – June 23, 1977) was an American writer, known for her religious and children's literature.

Sulamith Ish-Kishor
Died	June 23, 1977
Alma mater	Hunter College

Biography

She was born in London, England,^[1] one of eight children of Ephraim [he] and Fanny Ish-Kishor. Her father was a well-known writer of Jewish children's literature and an early proponent of Hovevei Zion, a pre-Zionist movement, and later of political Zionism. Her older sister, Judith Ish-Kishor, was a pioneering writer of Jewish children's literature in English.^[2]

Sulamith began writing at age 5 and had several of her poems printed in British publications by the time she was 10.^[1] When Sulamith was 13, her family moved to New York City (like the family in her novel Our Eddie).^[1]

At Hunter College, she studied languages and history. She wrote widely, and was published in several magazines, including The New Yorker, Saturday Review, and Reader's Digest. Her now-classic story of a long-distance correspondence and its fateful conclusion, "Appointment with Love," was published in a 1943 edition of Collier's and was subsequently plagiarized by preacher-author Max Lucado (as "The Rose") in a 1992 collection.^[3]

Our Eddie was a 1970 Newbery Honor book.^[1] It portrays a father whose abusive treatment of his child contrasts with the Jewish values he claims to promote. A Boy of Old Prague, which recounts the friendship between a 16th-century Gentile boy and a Jewish family was a popular selection of the Scholastic Book Club in the 1970s and dealt with the issue of anti-semitism in late Renaissance Europe.

Works

• The Bible Story. The United Synagogue of America. 1921. (reprinted, Nabu Press ISBN 9781276379205)
• The Heaven on the Sea, together with Twenty Poems, New York, Bloch Publishing Co, 1924
• Friday night stories: Series I, New York: The Women's League of the United Synagogue of America (reprinted 1949)
• Friday Night Stories. Series II, New York: The Women's League of the United Synagogue of America, 1928
• The Children's Story of the Bible, a Bible History for School And Home, New York, Educational Stationery House, 1930
• Children's History of Israel (In 3 Volumes Illustrated: Volume One: From Creation to the Passing of Moses. Volume Two: From Joshua to the Second Temple. Volume Three: From the Second Temple to the Present Time), Jordan Publishing Company, 1933
• Magnificent Hadrian: A Biography of Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, New York, Minton, Balch & Company, 1935 (also London, Victor Gollancz, 1935)
• Jews to Remember, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1941
• "Appointment With Love," Collier's, June 5, 1943 (fulltext available)
• American Promise: A History of the Jews in the New World, New York, Behrman House, 1947
• Everyman's history of the Jews, New York, Frederick Fell, 1948
• The Palace of Eagles and Other Stories, New York, The Shoulson Press, 1948
• A Stranger Within Thy Gates, New York, The Shoulson Press, 1948
• Blessed Is the Daughter ISBN 0-88400-064-8 Shengold Publishers, Inc., 1959 reprinted ISBN 9780548442753
• How Theodor Herzl Created the Jewish National Fund Together with an album of Herzliana, a chronology and excerpts from his diaries and autobiography"", New York, Youth and Education Department, Jewish National Fund, 1960 (reprinted ISBN 9781258188757)
• A Boy of Old Prague, Pantheon Books, 1963
• The Carpet of Solomon: A Hebrew Legend, Pantheon Books, 1966 ISBN 978-0-394-91131-1
• Zalman Shazar: President of the People, New York, Youth and Education Department, Jewish National Fund, 1966
• Pathways Through the Jewish Holidays, Hoboken, New Jersey, KTAV Publishing House, 1967 ISBN 0-87068-537-6
• Our Eddie, Pantheon Books, 1969 ISBN 0-394-81455-X
• Drusilla, a Novel of the Emperor Hadrian, Pantheon Books, 1970 ISBN 3-570-07526-5)
• The Master of Miracle: A New Novel of the Golem, Harper & Row, 1971 ISBN 9780060260880
• Ferrer, the Sweetest Sula, 2006
• Meggie and the Fairies, New York: Works Progress Administration

Awards

• 1964: National Jewish Book Award for A Boy of Old Prague^[4]

See also

• Deborah Pessin

References

1. "Sulamith Ish-Kishor | Author | LibraryThing". LibraryThing.com. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
2. "Judith Ish-Kishor: This Too Shall Pass ", Shnayer Z. Leiman, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 41, No. 1 (SPRING 2008)
3. Mikkelson, Barbara (March 5, 2007). "The Rose". snopes.com. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
4. "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-19.

External links

• Sulamith Ish-Kishor at Library of Congress, with 22 library catalog records (including 7 "from old catalog")