Meyer Levin

Meyer Levin (born October 5, 1905 in Chicago , Illinois ; died July 9, 1981 in Jerusalem ) was an American writer and journalist .

His extensive work ranges from socially critical , historical and documentary novels to fictional and non-fictional works on Judaism , Israel and the Holocaust . Literature studies his 16 novels primarily in the context of proletarian American literature of the 1930s and Jewish-American literature of the 20th century. After 1955, Levin was embroiled in a lawsuit that lasted for years over a stage adaptation of Anne Frank's diary which he had written and which has become the subject of several studies.

Life

Youth and literary beginnings

Levin was the son of Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States from Eastern Europe. He grew up in a slum on the South Side of Chicago that was known for its high crime rate . Levin studied at the University of Chicago , where he graduated in 1924. While still a student, he began working as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News in 1923 .

In 1925 Levin embarked on a trip to Europe that changed his stance on his Jewish heritage, which he had previously viewed as a hindrance to a career in journalism. The artist circle around the Polish painter and sculptor Marek Szwarc , who lives in Paris , familiarized him with the diversity of Jewish culture. Levin began to grapple with Judaism in order to incorporate the newly acquired knowledge into his work. He traveled to Palestine , from where he reported on the opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . He stayed there for a while and worked for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency . In the following years, he published short stories with increasing frequency in the literary magazine The Menorah Journal .

Levin returned to the United States for some time but decided to settle in Palestine in 1928. He lived on kibbutz Jagur south of Haifa for a year . In 1929 his first novel The Reporter was published in the USA , a literary processing of his experiences while working as a journalist in Chicago. Shortly after publication, the publisher withdrew the book because a former colleague of Levins saw herself portrayed in it and threatened a libel suit .

"Proletarian" writer

Once again Levin went back to the USA in order to devote himself seriously to a literary career. In the next two years he published two other novels, the love story Frankie and Johnny (1930) and Yehudah (1931), one of the first literary works to deal with life in a kibbutz. The book The Golden Mountain (1932) introduced a new thematic aspect in Levin's literary work, the examination of Hasidic mysticism . It was a retelling of the legends of Baal Shem Tov , the founder of the Hasidic movement, and his great-grandson Rabbi Nachman . The illustrations came from Marek Szwarc.

Levin's further writing was characterized by repeated thematic changes between socially critical novels, which were set in Chicago or New York, and the preoccupation with spiritual elements of the Jewish religion and with aspects of recent Jewish history. His next novel, The New Bridge (1933) was about the effects of an eviction on a New York family. In the year of its appearance, Levin became editor of the newly founded Esquire magazine , for which he wrote articles and film reviews until 1939. During those years Levin also took part in a campaign against police brutality in his hometown of Chicago.

From the perspective of the republican forces, Levin reported as a correspondent on the early phase of the Spanish Civil War before publishing two of his most famous novels. With The Old Bunch (1937) he presented a broad panorama of the growing up of twelve Jewish youths in a slum in Chicago between 1921 and 1934, thus portraying a world that he was familiar with from his own childhood. Citizen (1940) was a fictional recounting of the Memorial Day massacre in Chicago during the Little Steel Strike in 1937. Both works are considered examples of American “proletarian” literature of their time. In the tradition of John Dos Passos , Levin used a series of protagonists and multi-perspective narrative techniques instead of main characters and strands. He saw this as appropriate for a literature that sees itself as democratic and tries to analyze social conditions.

World War II and post-war period

After the US entered World War II , Levin worked for the Office of War Information . In the United States and England, he helped make propaganda films to aid the American war effort. After the Allied landing in Normandy , he served in France in the Psychological Warfare Division . As a war reporter for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he accompanied the American troops on their advance and visited Dachau , Buchenwald and Theresienstadt after their liberation. It was a decisive experience that would have a strong thematic influence on his further work.

From 1945 to 1947 Levin lived again in Palestine and reported in his first year as a correspondent on the growing tensions between Jews and Arabs. In 1947 he produced the first full-length feature film that was made in Palestine. My Father's House , in which Levin also played a supporting role, is about a girl who survived the concentration camps and is looking for her family in Palestine. Levin also processed the subject in a novel of the same name.

Levin joined the Hagana and helped in Europe in efforts to organize an emigration of displaced persons to Palestine against the resistance of the British . He also recorded his experiences in the film Lo Tafhidenu (1947), which is considered an important document of the events. During this time he was accompanied by Tereska Torrès , daughter of his friend Marek Szwarc and 16 years younger than him. The two married in 1948. Torrès became a very successful writer herself.

Controversy over Anne Frank's diary

In the 1950s, Levin got into a dispute over the rights to a stage version of Anne Frank's diary , which occupied him for years and ultimately left him bitter. His wife had referred him to the book in 1951, after which he promoted its publication in the United States and attracted attention with a review in the New York Times . With the consent of Anne's father Otto Frank , he began work on a dramatization of the diary and sent a draft to Broadway producer Cheryl Crawford , which she accepted. On the advice of Lillian Hellman , who found Levin's version inadequate, Crawford commissioned the authors, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, with the adaptation. Her two-act play The Diary of Anne Frank , premiered in October 1955 at the Cort Theater in New York, was a huge success, received the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award , and in 1959 George Stevens turned it into a multi- Oscar- winning feature film .

Levin claimed that the play shamefully neglected the Jewish theme of the diary, but on the other hand made use of its design. He sued Kermit Bloomgarden, who produced the play instead of Crawford, as well as Goodrich, Hackett, and Otto Frank. Years of litigation ensued, which eventually ended in a settlement according to which Levin received compensation but decided not to publish his adaptation. Levin, who refused to accept the result and fought for the rest of his life to get his play on stage, processed the experience in the novel The Fanatic (1964). In addition, he later described the processes in detail in his (second) volume of memoirs The Obsession (1973), as did his widow Tereska Torrès in the book Les maisons hantées de Meyer Levin (1991). In the 1990s, they also became the subject of two scientific studies. To date, only private prints by Levin's Anne Frank exist . A Play , although it has been performed "black" several times, also in Israel.

Later years

While the controversy continued, Levin published the novel Compulsion (1957), which brought him his greatest success as a writer. He is considered to be the forerunner of the later documentary novel of New Journalism , which produced works such as Truman Capotes Cold Blood (1965) and Norman Mailer's Merciless (1980). Levin processed the story of Leopold and Loeb , two well-to-do Jewish students at the University of Chicago, who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 1924 and were sentenced to life imprisonment in a sensational trial. The novel is divided into a first half, in which the motives of the perpetrators are psychologically analyzed, and the depiction of the legal proceedings in the second half. It became a hit with audiences and critics, as did the 1959 film Der Zwang zum Böse by director Richard Fleischer , which was based on Levin's own theater adaptation from 1957.

From 1958 Levin lived in New York and Israel. In the following years he published a trilogy of novels on the Holocaust : Eva (1959), again based on the story of Anne Frank, The Fanatic (1964) and The Stronghold (1965), the latter a thriller that took place in a concentration camp is located shortly before the end of the war. His later works Gore and Igor (1968), The Settlers (1972) and The Harvest (1978) dealt with life in Israel and the history of the Jewish settlement in Palestine. In between, The Spell of Time (1974) appeared, a love story that at the same time took up the theme of Jewish mysticism. With his last work, The Architect (1981), a key novel about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright , he once again succeeded in breaking new ground thematically and stylistically - while at the same time rediscovering Chicago as a setting.

In addition to novels, Levin wrote a number of non-fictional books during this period that dealt with the Jewish religion and Israel, some of which were addressed to children. Occasionally he appeared as editor, for example in 1970 together with Charles Angoff on an anthology with passages of the most important novels of Jewish-American literature.

Works

Books

Novels

• The Reporter. A novel. John Day, New York 1929.
• Frankie and Johnny. A love story. John Day, New York 1930. New edition: The Young Lovers (Frankie and Johnny) . New America Library, New York 1952.
• Yehuda. J. Cape & H. Smith, New York 1931.
• New Bridge. undated, New York 1933.
• The Old Bunch. Viking Press, New York 1937.
• Citizens. A novel. Viking Press, New York 1940.
• My Father's House. Viking Press, New York 1947.
• Compulsion. Simon and Schuster, New York 1956.
  • German-language edition: Zwang. Translated by Hermann Stiehl and Margot Stiehl. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1958.
• Eve. Simon and Schuster, New York 1959. (New edition: Eva. A Novel of the Holocaust. Behrman House, New York 1979, ISBN 0-87441-283-8 )
  • German-language editions: Eva. A woman's fate. Novel. Translated by Georg Erich Salther. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1960. The story of Eva Korngold. Based on notes by Ida Löw . Kunstmann, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88897-145-4 .
• The Fanatic. A novel. Simon and Schuster, New York 1964.
• The Stronghold. A novel. Simon and Schuster, New York 1965.
• Gore and Igor. An extravaganza. Simon and Schuster, New York 1968.
• The settlers. Simon and Schuster, New York 1972, ISBN 0-671-21154-4 .
• The Spell of Time. A tale of love in Jerusalem. Illustration: Eli Levin. Praeger, New York 1974, ISBN 0-275-05130-7 .
• The Harvest. A novel. Simon and Schuster, New York 1978, ISBN 0-671-22550-2 .
• The Architect. Simon and Schuster, New York 1981, ISBN 0-671-24892-8 .

Judaica

• The Golden Mountain. Marvelous Tales of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem, and of his Great-grandson, Rabbi Nachman. Retold from Hebrew, Yiddish, and German Sources. Illustration: Marek Szwarc. J. Cape & R. Ballou, New York 1932. New edition: Classic Hassidic Tales. Marvelous Tales of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem and of His Great-grandson, Rabbi Nachman. Retold from Hebrew, Yiddish, and German Sources. Citadel Press, New York 1966.
• If I Forget Thee. A Picture Story of Modern Palestine. Photos: P. Goldman, Sasha Alexander, and others. Viking Press, New York 1947 (illustrated book for the film My Father's House ).
• The Story of Israel. Photos: Archie Lieberman. Drawings: Eli Levin.
• The Story of the Synagogue. Illustration: Robert Pious. Behrman House, New York 1957 (with Toby K. Kurzband).
• The Story of the Jewish Way of Life. Illustration: Harry Lazarus. Behrman House, New York 1959 (with Toby K. Kurzband).
• The Haggadah. Retold by Meyer Levin. Design and Illustration: Miriam Woods. Behrman House, New York 1968.
• Beginnings in Jewish Philosophy. Behrman House, New York 1971, ISBN 0-87441-063-0 .

Autobiographical

• In Search. To Autobiography. Horizon Press, New York 1952.
• The obsession. Simon and Schuster, New York 1973, ISBN 0-671-21674-0 .

editor

• with Charles Angoff: The Rise of American Jewish Literature. An Anthology of Selections from the Major Novels. Simon and Schuster, New York 1970, ISBN 0-671-20369-X .

Movies

• My Father's House. Palestine 1947. Directed by Herbert Kline, Joseph Lejtes and Ben Oyserman. Production and template: Meyer Levin
• Lo Tafhidenu (HaBilti Legalim). הבלתי לגאליים. Palestine 1947. Director: Meyer Levin.
• The compulsion to evil. Original title: Compulsion. USA 1959. Director: Richard Fleischer . Screenplay: Richard Murphy based on the novel by Meyer Levin.
• The Parisienne and the Prudes. USA 1964. Director: Robert J. Gurney Jr. Screenplay: Robert J. Gurney Jr. based on a story by Meyer Levin. About his wife Tereska Torrès and the US censorship fight against their war diary
• The Ship. USA 1978. Director: Meyer Levin. Short film.

theatre

• Anne Frank. A play. Printed privately only.
• Compulsion. USA 1957. Book edition: Compulsion. A play. Simon and Schuster, New York 1957.

literature

• Katja Heimsath: "Despite everything I believe in the good in people": Anne Frank's diary and its reception in the Federal Republic of Germany . Hamburg: Hamburg Univ. Press, 2013 ISBN 978-3-943423-00-6 , pp. 179-220
• Mashey Bernstein: Meyer Levin (1905–1981). In: Joel Shatzky, Michael Taub (Eds.): Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists. A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood, Westport CT 1997, ISBN 0-313-29462-3 , pp. 178-184.
• Lawrence Graver: An Obsession with Anne Frank. Meyer Levin and The Diary . University of California Press, Berkeley CA 1995, ISBN 0-520-20124-8 .
• Sol Liptzin: Levin, Meyer. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . Volume 12: Kat - Lie. 2nd edition. Macmillan et al., Detroit MI et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865940-4 , pp. 711-712.
• Ralph Melnick: The Stolen Legacy of Anne Frank. Meyer Levin, Lillian Hellman, and the Staging of the Diary. Yale University Press, New Haven CT 1997, ISBN 0-300-06907-3 .
• Luca Prono: Levin, Meyer (1905-1981). In: Tom Pendergast (Ed.): St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Vol. 3. St. James Press, Detroit MI 2000, ISBN 1-55862-403-1 , pp. 145-146.
• Steven J. Rubin: Meyer Levin. Twayne Publishers, Boston MA 1982, ISBN 0-8057-7335-5 .
• Tereska Torrès : Les maisons hantées de Meyer Levin. Denoël, Paris 1991 ISBN 2-207-23825-3 (author is his wife)

Web links

• Literature by and about Meyer Levin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Meyer Levin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Portrait Meyer Levin on the website awfulagent.com (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Miriam Gebhardt: With fear came death. Die Zeit online, March 8, 1991, accessed on July 18, 2014.
2. ^ Israel Film Archive, Jerusalem Cinematheque , accessed May 11, 2015; in Hebrew script, 1 film photo