|
|
|
|
|
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books
|
 |
 |
| Author |
|
Aaron Lansky. |
|
| Publisher |
Algonquin |
| Format |
hardcover
|
| Product Dimensions |
9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
|
| ISBN |
9781565124295 |
| Pages/Publication Date |
316/2004 |
| Daedalus Item Code |
82693 |
|
|
List Price: $24.95
Sale Price: $5.98
You Save: $18.97
|
|
Tell a friend
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Description |
|
|
Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich, who was in Finland when the Nazis invaded his native Poland, was asked why he persisted in teaching the study of Yiddish when half the world's speakers had been killed in the Holocaust. "Because Yiddish has magic," he answered simply, "it will outwit history." By 1980, scholars estimated only 70,000 Yiddish-language books—not titles, books—still existed, a statistic fact that alarmed 23-year-old Aaron Lansky, who set out with little more than his own chutzpah to rescue the world’s abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Twenty-five years and 1,500,000 books later, as the founder and president of the National Yiddish Book Center, he’s still in the midst of a great adventure. This is Lansky’s poignant and often laugh-out-loud account of his travels across the country as he schmoozed books from aging Jewish immigrants—books their own children had no use for—dug through demolition sites and trash bins, and traveled to far-flung towns in Europe to rescue this vibrant, intellectual literary heritage. Outwitting History also explores the work of such brilliant Yiddish writers as Mendele, Sholem Aleichem, and I.B. Singer. "Lansky's account of salvaging books is both hilarious and moving, filled with Jewish humor, conversations with elderly Jewish immigrants for whom the books evoke memories of a faraway past, stories of desperate midnight rescues from rain-soaked Dumpsters, and touching accounts of Lansky's trips to what were once thriving Jewish communities in Europe."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
