Subject Guide: Jewish Nobel Prize Laureates

Some of the laureates featured in our collections: 

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

• The 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature was divided equally between Agnon "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people" and Nelly Sachs. 
• Archive highlights: 
  • Shmuel Joseph Agnon Collection (LBIJER 333) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
  • Ofra D. Core Collection (AR 25421) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • This collection contains a handwritten poem by Agnon, written for Uri Bergmann. 
  • Papers of Israel Elfenbein (1890-1964) Collection (RG 773)
    • Found in Series I, Subseries 11 are letters written to and from Agnon. 
• Library highlights: 
  • Only yesterday / by Shmuel Yosef Agnon ; translated from the Hebrew by Barbara Harshav. Princeton University Press, 2000.
  • A study in the evolution of S.Y. Agnon's style / by Joseph Kaspi. Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1972.
  • Shmuel Yosef Agnon : a revolutionary traditionalist / by Gershon Shaked ; translated by Jeffrey M. Green. New York University Press, 1989.

Elias Canetti

• The 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Canetti "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power." 
• Archive highlights: 
  • Elias Canetti Collection 1963-1994 (AR 2299)
  • Eli Rothschild Collection, 1986 (AR 5456) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • This collection contains Eli Rothschild’s correspondence with Elias Canetti regarding his book Das Augenspiel. 
  • Rahel Sanzara Collection (AR 25057) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • This collection contains a letter from Canetti to Klaus-Peter Hinze, regarding Jewish author Ernst Weiss. 
  • Hagenberggasse 49 : Memories of a Viennese Jewish childhood (ME 1068) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • Sonia Wachstein writes about her life, including her friendship with Elias Canetti. [Part of the LBI Memoir Collection.]
  • Elias Canetti (Besso Reel 166). Audio from Buenos Días América program (L.A. Division of the Voice of America) on March 25, 1971, discussing Canetti. [Collection is digitized and available online.]
• Library highlights: 
  • The memoirs of Elias Canetti / by Elias Canetti. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999
  • Elias Canetti : Biographie / by Sven Hanuschek. Hanser, 2005.
  • Elias Canetti : Bilder aus seinem Leben / Edited by Kristian Wachinger. Hanser, 2005.

Nadine Gordimer 

• The 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Gordimer "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity." 
• Archive highlights: 
  • Bernard Gotfryd Papers (RG 1380).
    • This collection consists of photographs taken by Gotfryd and contains a photo of Gordimer.
• Library highlights:
  • Die Cassirers : Unternehmer, Kunsthändler, Philosophen : Biographie einer Familie / by Sigrid Bauschinger. Verlag C.H. Beck, 2015.
  • Nicht ganz koscher : Stories für die Feiertage / Edited by Patricia Reimann. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2012.

Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse

• The 1910 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Heyse "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories." 
• Archive highlights: 
  • Paul Heyse Collection, 1878-1910 (AR 946) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
  • Jakob Freimann Collection, 1827-1937 (AR 3489) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • This collections contains letters and cards sent to Rabbi Jakob Freimann and Rabbi Wolf Feilchenfeld. This includes a letter from Heyse.
  • Portrait of Paul Heyse / oil painting by Eduard Magnus. circa 1860. [Collection is digitized and available online.]
• Library highlights: 
  • Der Briefwechsel zwischen Paul Heyse und Hermann Levi : eine kritische Edition / by Julia Bernhardt. Dr. Kovač, 2007.
  • "Du, von dem ich lebe!" : Briefe an Paul Heyse / by Jacob Bernays ; edited by William M. Calder III und Timo Günther. Wallstein, 2010.
  • Paul Heyse : Nobel laureate in literature, 1910 / by John Henry Richter. n.p., 1970.

Elfriede Jelinek

• The 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Jelinek "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."
• Archive highlights: 
  • Rechnitz : Austria's dirty little secret : a rare interview with Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek. A lecture presented by YIVO and the Leo Baeck Institute, hosted by scholar Gitta Honegger. [Video is available online.]
• Library highlights:
  • Elfriede Jelinek--"Ich will kein Theater" : mediale Überschreitungen / Edited by Pia Janke. Praesens Verlag, 2007.
  • Elfriede Jelinek : writing woman, nation, and identity : a critical anthology / Edited by Matthias Piccolruaz Konzett and Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007.

Nelly Sachs

• The 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature was divided equally between Sachs "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength" and Shmuel Yosef Agnon. 
• Archive highlights:
  • Nelly Sachs Collection (AR 3991) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
  • Nelly Sachs Autographs Collection, 1937-1967 (AR 3239) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
  • Nelly Sachs : die Dichterin und ihr Werk (MS 669) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • This is the transcript of a lecture about Sachs that was held at the Leo Baeck Institute New York on December 28, 1966.
  • Erika Guetermann Collection (AR 1893) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • This collection contains correspondence from Nelly Sachs to German-American journalist and poet, Erika Guetermann.
  • Miriam Merzbacher-Blumenthal Collection (AR 25701) [Collection is digitized and available online.]
    • Series III of this collection concerns Ilse Blumenthal-Weiss and contains correspondence between the German photographer and Nelly Sachs. 
• Library highlights:
  • Exhibit catalog, documenting the life and work of Nelly Sachs, Nobel laureate in literature, 1966 / New York Leo Baeck Institute, 1966.
  • "The space of words" : exile and diaspora in the works of Nelly Sachs / by Jennifer M. Hoyer. Camden House, 2014.
  • Nelly Sachs : die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus und die "Gejagten alle auf der Welt" / by Peter Selg. Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, 2017.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

• The 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Singer "for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life."
• Archive highlights:
  • Berish Weinstein Papers (RG 626)
    • Collection contains correspondence between Weinstein, a Polish poet, and other Yiddish literary figures including Singer. 
  • Noah Goldberg Papers (RG 599)
    • Collection contains correspondence between Goldberg, a Belarussian-American writer, and other Yiddish literary figures including Singer.
  • Papers of Yudel Mark (RG 540)
    • Collection contains correspondence between Mark, co-founder of the YIVO Institute in Vilna, and other Yiddish literary figures including Singer. 
• Library highlights:
  • A day of pleasure : stories of a boy growing up in Warsaw / by Isaac Bashevis Singer ; with photos by Roman Vishniac. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.
  • More stories from my father's court / by Isaac Bashevis Singer ; translated by Curt Leviant. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
  • Nobel lecture / by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979.