The sentimental education of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in 1902 in Warsaw to a rabbi and the daughter of a rabbi, was a prolific and celebrated writer whose career spanned over six decades. His writing often depicted the world of Eastern European Jewry, blending elements of folklore, mysticism, and realism. In the mid-1970s, Singer and a friend, the illustrator Ira Moskowitz, decided to collaborate on a book about Jewish mysticism. Although Farrar, Straus and Giroux was Singer’s longtime publisher, they passed on the project, and Moskowitz brought it to Doubleday, where Eve Roshevsky was an editorial assistant reporting to the head of the Religion department, Alex Leipa. Leipa assigned Roshevsky to be Singer’s personal amanuensis: she reported later that it was a case of being “in the right place (and right religion) at the same time.” This archive, which was preserved by Eve Roshevsky, contains a collection of documents related to Isaac Bashevis Singer and Love in Exile. It includes an autograph letter from Sing