Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

In 1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life.” Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published a beautifully designed bilingual, English and Yiddish, edition of the address Singer gave upon accepting the prize. Pick it up if you want to spend a few minutes appreciating the humor and intellect of a man, deeply troubled by the problems of his era. I was not exaggerating when I said “few minutes”: the whole address is 6 pages long. The little book also contains an analysis of his work and a statement titled “Why I write for children.” This is so delightful that I want to share with all of you even if you do not manage to get the book:

There are five hundred reasons why I began to write for children, but to save time I will mention only ten of them.

Number 1: Children read books, not reviews. They don’t give a hoot about the critics.

Number 2: Children don’t read to find their identity.

Number 3: They don’t read to free themselves of guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation.

Number 4: They have no use for psychology.

Number 5: They detest sociology.

Number 6: They don’t try to understand Kafka or Finnegans Wake.

Number 7: They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.

Number 8: They love interesting stories, not commentary, guides, or footnotes.

Number 9: When a book is boring, they yawn openly, without any shame or fear of authority.

Number 10: They don’t expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.