Gimpel The Fool By: Issac Bashevis Singer

1. Gimpel The Fool By: Issac Bashevis Singer Presented By: John Durnell, Cayla Galus, & Mark Gillmeister

2. Issac Bashevis Singer • Issac was born in 1904 in Leoncin, Poland. • He lived in Poland until 1935, when he moved to the United States.

3. Bashevis Singer • Singer’s birth date is not known • Some say he was born in July of 1904, but many say he was born in 1902 • An author made up the birth date July 14th, 2009 to make him seem younger.

4. His Younger Years • Before he was a writer, he went to be a rabbi, like his father. • In his twenties, he decided to be a writer. • He was a journalist in Warsaw during the wars. • Singer was influenced by his brother who had already been a writer.

5. Family life • His father was a rabbi • His mother was the son of a rabbi • He has two siblings, one brother, Israel Joshua Singer and one sister, Esther Kreitman • They were both writers

6. Family continued • Esther was the first to start writing • His family moved to the court of the Rabbi of Radzymin • The court building burned down • They were stuck living in a poor Jewish quarter of Warsaw.

7. Earliest Works • Singer wrote fictional short stories and novellas first, instead of novels. • He wrote Satan in Goray when the Nazi catastrophe was happening, right before he emigrated to the US. • He’s lived here ever since.

8. Themes of Singer’s stories • Some frequently used themes are the tyranny of the passions, the power and fickle inventiveness of obsession, the odd shape wellness, and the destructive, inflaming, and absurd creative potential of the emotions.

9. Singer’s work • He wrote nine novels. • And also write seven short stories. • To go along with this, he wrote three memoirs. • And six books for children.

10. Isaac Bashevis Singer • Singer died 8 years ago, in 1991. • He lived his 87 year life writing many short stories.