Ernst Pawel

Ernst Pawel (January 23, 1920 — August 16, 1994) was a German American translator who worked primarily for New York Life Insurance from 1946 to 1982. Pawel wrote about the Holocaust and Sigmund Freud in three books from 1951 to 1960. From 1954 to 1965 Pawel translated books by Georges Simenon and Lotte Lehman.

During the 1980s, Pavel released biographies of Franz Kafka and Theodor Herzl. Following his death in 1994, Pawel's biography on Heinrich Heine and his memoir were released. The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and was nominated for the American Book Award for Nonfiction in 1984.

Early life and education

Pawel was born in Breslau, Germany on January 23, 1920, to a Jewish couple.[1][2] After Adolf Hitler took over Germany in 1933, Pawel went to Yugoslavia with his mother and father.[3] While in Belgrade during his teens, Pawel worked at a bookstore.[4] He also "joined clandestine Communist and Zionist youth groups".[5] During the late 1930s, Pawel moved to the United States.[6] For his post-secondary education, Pawel went to City College and the New School for Social Research.[3]

Career

Positions

Pawel began working for the Serbian Daily while he lived in New York.[7] Pawel was part of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.[3] Throughout the war, Pawel was a translator from the early to mid 1940s. After being hired by New York Life Insurance in 1946, Pawel expanded his career to public relations while continuing to work in translation.[8][9] While at New York Life, Pawel wanted to leave during the first month of his position, but he stayed with the company until 1982.[10][6]

Works

Pawel wrote about the Holocaust in The Island in Time.[11] This 1951 book took place at a fictional Italian refugee camp.[9] Pawel set his 1957 book From the Dark Tower at an American insurance company. It was about the main character's behavioral changes after the suicide of his boss.[12] In 1960, Pawel released In the Absence of Magic. Taking place on an island, it was about two former followers of Sigmund Freud.[13]

Pawel co-translated poetry by Georges Simenon in 1954.[14] In 1965, Pawel was the sole translator of a Lotte Lehman work about opera by Richard Strauss.[15] The following year, Pawel translated a book on nuclear strategy by Raymond Aron.[1]

In 1984 Pawel wrote The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka.[16] In this book, Pawel included a "political and social background of ... turn-of-the-century Prague".[17] In 1989, Pawel released The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl.[18] In a review by the Boston Globe, Harry Zohn said Pawel "[editorialized], [vented] some of his personal prejudices and [made] misstatements" with his Herzl book.[19]

In 1995, Pawel's Life in Dark Ages: A Memoir and The Poet Dying: Heinrich Heine's Last Years in Paris were posthumously published, his daughter having completed the memoir.[4][20] In Life in Dark Ages: A Memoir, Pawel wrote about his life from the 1920s to the 1940s.[5][21]

Nomination and awards

When the American Book Awards replaced the National Book Awards during the 1980s, Pawel was nominated for the 1984 American Book Award for Nonfiction with The Nightmare of Reason.[22][23] That year, The Nightmare of Reason received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography.[24] In 1985, Pawel received the Alfred Harcourt Award for The Nightmare of Reason.[25]

Personal life and death

Pawel had two children during his marriage. On August 16, 1994, he died in Great Neck, New York from lung cancer.[8][10]

References
  1. Trosky, Susan M., ed. (1991). "Pawel, Ernst 1920-". Contemporary Authors. Vol. 131. Detroit and London: Gale Research Inc. p. 359. ISBN 081031956X. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  2. Shapiro, Elliot (July 23, 1995). "A man immersed in the themes of Judasim". The Buffalo News. p. G-8.
  3. Colby, Vineta, ed. (1995). "Pawel, Ernst". World Authors, 1985-1990. Wilson Authors Series. New York and Dublin: The H. W. Wilson Company. p. 662. ISBN 0824208757. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  4. Schaer, Sidney C. (August 18, 1994). "Ernst Pawel, 74, Wrote Franz Kafka Biography". Newsday. Nassau. p. A61.
  5. Harris, Michael (July 18, 1995). "One Man's Tale of the Holocaust and Human Suffering". Los Angeles Times. p. E7.
  6. Singer, David; Seldin, Ruth R., eds. (1996). "Pawel, Ernst". American Jewish Year Book 1996. Vol. 96. New York: The American Jewish Committee. p. 559. ISBN 0874951100. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  7. Gilson, Estelle (November–December 1995). "Growing Up in History". Congress Monthly. Vol. 62, no. 6. The American Jewish Congress. p. 20. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  8. "Ernst Pawel, 74, Biographer, Dies". The New York Times. August 19, 1994. p. A24. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  9. Wildhack, William (June 23, 1951). "DP Jews; Plight Is Expertly Told". The Indianapolis News. p. 2.
  10. Christy, Desmond (August 26, 1994). "Ernst Pawel". The Guardian. sec. Second p. 18.
  11. "Kafka the focus of biographer's talk at the Rockland Center for the Arts". The Journal-News. April 23, 1987. sec. Weekend p. 12.
  12. F. G. H. (June 30, 1957). "Rebellion Against Conformity". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. B 23.
  13. Lewin, Jacqueline (April 24, 1960). "Difficult Novel of Ideas". The Boston Globe. p. C—23.
  14. Price, Blanche (March 7, 1954). "Facile Narrative". The Hartford Courant Magazine. p. Eighteen.
  15. Stevenson, Samuel W. (February 28, 1965). "Five Operas As Strauss Wrote Them". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. L-9.
  16. Shloss, Carol (May 27, 1984). "A chronicle of homelessness". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. sec. H p. 1.
  17. Eder, Richard (July 7, 1984). "Biography sketches Kafka's real world". The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec. The Los Angeles Times. p. I-1.
  18. Zohn, Harry (December 10, 1989). "A richly-detailed examination of the father of Zionism". The Boston Globe. p. B40.
  19. Zohn 1989, p. B41
  20. "Novelist Ernst Pawel". The Muncie Star. The Wire Services. August 20, 1994. p. 3C.
  21. Siegel, Lee (August 27, 1995). "Laughing at Death". Newsday. sec. FanFare p. 37.
  22. Fehrman, Craig (October 30, 2011). "The Short, Unsuccessful Life of the American Book Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  23. Taylor, Robert (October 18, 1984). "11 finalists for American Book Awards". The Boston Globe. p. 40.
  24. "6 Honored at Fifth Annual L. A. Times Book Awards". The Los Angeles Times. November 3, 1984. sec. Part 1 p. 30.
  25. "Ernst Pawel Honored With Harcourt Award". The New York Times. May 29, 1985. p. sec C p. 21. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
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