Sulamith Ish-Kishor


Sulamith Ish-kishor was an American writer, known for her religious and children's literature.

Biography

She was born in London, England, one of eight children of 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.
Sulamith began writing at age 5 and had several of her poems printed in British publications by the time she was 10. When Sulamith was 13, her family moved to New York City.
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 in a 1992 collection.
Our Eddie was a 1970 Newbery Honor book. 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 antisemitism in late Renaissance Europe.

Works

The Heaven on the Sea, together with Twenty Poems, New York, Bloch Publishing Co, 1924Friday night stories: Series I, New York: The Women's League of the United Synagogue of America Friday Night Stories. Series II, New York: The Women's League of the United Synagogue of America, 1928The Children's Story of the Bible, a Bible History for School And Home, New York, Educational Stationery House, 1930Children's History of Israel , Jordan Publishing Company, 1933Magnificent Hadrian: A Biography of Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, New York, Minton, Balch & Company, 1935 Jews to Remember, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1941
  • "," Collier's, June 5, 1943 American Promise: A History of the Jews in the New World, New York, Behrman House, 1947Everyman's history of the Jews, New York, Frederick Fell, 1948The Palace of Eagles and Other Stories, New York, The Shoulson Press, 1948A Stranger Within Thy Gates, New York, The Shoulson Press, 1948Blessed Is the Daughter Shengold Publishers, Inc., 1959 reprinted 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 A Boy of Old Prague, Pantheon Books, 1963The Carpet of Solomon: A Hebrew Legend, Pantheon Books, 1966 Zalman Shazar: President of the People, New York, Youth and Education Department, Jewish National Fund, 1966Pathways Through the Jewish Holidays, Hoboken, New Jersey, KTAV Publishing House, 1967 Our Eddie, Pantheon Books, 1969 Drusilla, a Novel of the Emperor Hadrian, Pantheon Books, 1970 )The Master of Miracle: A New Novel of the Golem, Harper & Row, 1971 Ferrer, the Sweetest Sula, 2006Meggie and the Fairies, New York: Works Progress Administration

Awards