MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
February 15-29, 2004 Edition
Library of America Launches Isaac
Bashevis Singer Centennial Website
NEW YORK, NY 2/11/04—The Library of America, the nonprofit publisher dedicated to preserving the works of America’s greatest writers, launched today www.singer100.org. The website launch commences a yearlong official celebration of the centennial of Isaac Bashevis Singer, who in 1978 became the seventh American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Regularly updated and augmented throughout the centennial year, the Singer Centennial website features an illustrated introduction to Singer’s life and works, as well as a complete calendar of Centennial events, discussions of Singer’s work by celebrated writers and scholars, and opportunities for visitors to share their own Singer favorites. Additional features planned for the coming months include a roundtable discussion with Singer scholars, and an online version of a traveling exhibition devoted to Singer, which is being curated at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Austin Texas as part of the Centennial celebration.
The official Singer website also offers detailed information about the forthcoming Library of America edition of Singer’s beloved short stories. In July, Singer joins the authoritative Library of America series in a three-volume edition of collected stories and a fully illustrated companion Album-a first for the publisher.
“Singer is the emblematic example of an ethnic American writer who found a wide, mainstream audience, transforming in the process both himself and American literature,” says Max Rudin, Library of America publisher and Centennial director. “The Library of America is delighted, and honored, to gather for the first time the brilliant stories that speak so powerfully to the fears and longings of our modern nation of immigrants. We hope the website, the books and the Centennial celebrations will introduce new generations of readers to the work of this self-described ‘entertainer of the spirit.'”
A multifaceted program of public readings, panels, exhibitions, publications, and workshops exploring Singer and the immigrant literary experience, the Isaac Bashevis Singer Centennial is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and produced with cultural institutions nationwide throughout 2004.
