Outwitting History; The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books
Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004. Third Printing [stated]. Hardcover. x, 316, [2] pages. Includes Foreword, Notes, and Acknowledgments, as well as chapters on Learning Yiddish; On the Road; "Him I Don't Talk To!''; Crossing the Border; and Bringing It All Back Home. Aaron Lansky (born June 17, 1955 in New Bedford, Massachusetts) is the founder of the Yiddish Book Center, an organization he created to help salvage Yiddish language publications. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989 for his work. Lansky is the author of Outwitting History (2004), an autobiographical account of how he saved the Yiddish books of the world, from the 1970s to the present day. It won the 2005 Massachusetts Book Award. Lansky graduated from Hampshire College in 1977 with a B.A. in modern Jewish history, and went on to a graduate program in East European Jewish studies at McGill University in Montreal. When Lansky started out, experts believed that fewer than 70,000 Yiddish-language books still existed. Twenty-five years and 1.5 million books later, the organization Lansky founded, the National Yiddish Book Center, is one of the largest and fastest-growing Jewish cultural groups in the world. The author explores the roots of the Yiddish language and introduces us to the brilliant Yiddish writers--from Mendele to Sholem Aleichem to I. B. Singer--whose lasting cultural relevance is evident on every page. He shares the humor, tenacity, and love for the written word that unites Jewish immigrants with everyone who cares about the future of great literature. And he enables us to see how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the old world and the future. In 1980, a twenty-three-year-old student named Aaron Lansky set out to rescue the world's abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Twenty-five years and one and a half million books later, he's still in the midst of a great adventure. Filled with poignant and often laugh-out-loud tales from Lansky's travels across the country as he collected books from older Jewish immigrants, books their own children had no use for. Outwitting History also explores brilliant Yiddish writers and enables us to see how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the Old World and the future. Derived from a Kirkus review: Engaging first-person account of how some committed young people rescued from history’s dustbin more than a million books published in Yiddish. Lansky unfolds a tale of rare emotion and devotion. He was only 23, in 1980, when he made the decision to dedicate himself to the cause of saving books in Yiddish. He had begun studying the language while at Hampshire College and was shocked to discover that many libraries were discarding Yiddish works by the thousands because so few circulated. His account of his rescue efforts takes the form of an adventure story, related with a breathless and appealing Andy Hardy earnestness. The author and his companions pluck books from Dumpsters in the rain, from closing libraries, from damp garages and basements, from dour doubters, from aging Jews who surrender them like favorite children—with flowing tears, many tales, and much food. They make harrowing missions to Russia and Cuba. But it all pays off: Lansky now oversees a huge enterprise comprising a state-of-the-art facility, the National Yiddish Book Center, and a membership of some 35,000 supporters. He is digitizing the volumes, virtually all of which were printed on paper whose acid content assures disintegration. The purpose of the Book Center is not to hoard but to distribute the volumes. It maintains a core collection but considers putting books into the hands of readers among its chief purposes, in addition to making sure key titles are in libraries where scholars can consult them. Lansky also chronicles the history of Yiddish, his fundraising efforts (considerably accelerated by a 1989 MacArthur genius grant), and his countless public appearances. A rollicking ride in company with a man who has performed an enormously important public service. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Yiddish Books, Book, Collecting, Jews, Language, Culture, Library, Salvage, Literature, Cultural Transmission
ISBN: 1565124294
[Book #81687]
Price: $35.00