The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
The flowering of Jewish-American fiction in the 1950s and 1960s had its origin in the pioneering work of Abraham Cahan: immigrant, socialist, journalist, and fiction writer. With William Dean Howells' assistance, Cahan published Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896) and The Imported Bridegroom (1898). But it is The Rise of David Levinsky (1917) that is his masterwork. Using Howells's Rise of Silas Lapham as his model, Cahan explores an entire industry (ready-made clothing) and immigrant experience (Eastern European Jews) by focusing on a single character and his bittersweet ascent from Russian rags to Manhattan riches. A major work of American literary realism, The Rise of David Levinsky is also an example of reform-minded Progessivism and began as a series of sketches in McClure's Magazine alongside the work of muckrakers Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell. Although he is best remembered for this one novel (rediscovered in 1960 thanks to the popularity of a later generation of postwar Jewish-American writers), Cahan's most influential act was the founding of the world's leading Yiddish newspaper, the Jewish Daily Forward, in 1902.
Chametsky, Jules. From the Ghetto: The Fiction of Abraham Cahan. Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1977.
Marowitz, Sanford E. Abraham Cahan. New York, Twayne, 1996.