Samuel Gordon (novelist)

Samuel Gordon (10 September 1871 – 10 January 1927) was an English novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His fiction largely focused on the lives of contemporary English and Russian Jews.[1]

Samuel Gordon
Born(1871-09-10)10 September 1871
Buk, Posen, German Empire
Died10 January 1927(1927-01-10) (aged 55)
Stoke Newington, London, United Kingdom
Resting placeWillesden Jewish Cemetery
Alma materQueens' College, Cambridge
Notable worksSons of the Covenant (1900)
Spouse
Esther Zichlin
​
​
(m. 1907, divorced)​
Relatives
  • Annie Gertrude Gordon (sister)
  • Phyllis Gordon Demarest (daughter)

Biography

Samuel Gordon was born in Buk, Province of Posen to Jewish parents Bertha (nee Pulver) and Rev. Abraham Elias Gordon.[2] He went to England with his parents in 1883, where his father became cantor of the Great Synagogue of London. Gordon was educated at the City of London School, and read Classics at Queens' College, Cambridge, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1893.[3] He was appointed secretary of the Great Synagogue the following year.[4]

Gordon published several novels and volumes of short stories, mainly dealing with Jewish life and character, among them A Handful of Exotics (1897), Daughters of Shem (1898), Lesser Destinies (1899), Strangers at the Gate (1902), God's Remnants (1916), and the historical romance The Lost Kingdom; or, the Passing of the Khazars (1926).[5] In Years of Tradition (1897) and The New Galatea (1901) were his chief works outside Jewish lines.[6] Gordon's most accomplished work was Sons of the Covenant: A Tale of London Jewry (1900),[7] which portrays the lives of two newly-arrived Jewish immigrants to London's East End.[8][9]

He travelled widely in Europe and lived briefly in the United States.[1] As a journalist, Gordon covered the Fourth Zionist Congress in London for The Manchester Guardian in 1900.[10] He later worked in the Censor's Office during the World War I.[10]

Gordon died on 10 January 1927 at the age of 55. A theatrical adaptation of Daughters of Shem was performed at the New Scala shortly after his death.[10]

Bibliography
  • A Handful of Exotics: Scenes and Incidents Chiefly of Russo-Jewish Life. London: Methuen & Co. 1897. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t48p5xm2c.
  • In Years of Transition. Bliss, Sands & Co. 1897.
  • A Tale of Two Rings: A Story of Episodes and Intervals. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons. 1898.
  • Daughters of Shem, and Other Stories. London: Greenberg & Co. 1898.
  • Lesser Destinies. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Co. 1899.
  • Sons of the Covenant: A Tale of London Jewry. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. 1900.
  • Strangers at the Gate. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. 1902.
  • The Queen's Quandary. London: Sands & Company. 1903.
  • Unto Each Man His Own. London: William Heinemann. 1904. hdl:2027/hvd.hw5iws.
  • The Ferry of Fate: A Tale of Russian Jewry. London: Chatto & Windus. 1906. hdl:2027/osu.32435008487720.
  • The New Galatea. London: Greening & Co. 1908.
  • God's Remnants: Stories of Israel Among the Nations. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1916.
  • The Avenger. New York: The Macaulay Company. 1921.
  • The Second Flowering. New York: The Macaulay Company. 1922.
  • The Lost Kingdom; or, the Passing of the Khazars. London: Shapiro, Valentine and Co. 1926.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jacobs, Joseph (1904). "Gordon, Samuel". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 48.

  1. Hess, Jonathan M.; Samuels, Maurice; Vaiman, Nadia, eds. (2013). Nineteenth-Century Jewish Literature: A Reader. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 123–124. ISBN 978-0-8047-8619-5.
  2. "Samuel Gordon's Cossack and Chorister". Jewish Quarterly. 19 (3): 36–42. 1971. doi:10.1080/0449010X.1971.10703265 (inactive 1 August 2023).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)
  3. Venn, John; Venn, J. A., eds. (2011) [1947]. Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-108-03613-9.
  4. "Samuel Gordon, Anglo-Jewish Novelist, Dies". Jewish Daily Bulletin. Vol. 4, no. 666. New York: Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 12 January 1927. p. 2.
  5. Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred, eds. (2007). "Gordon, Samuel". Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  6.  Jacobs, Joseph (1904). "Gordon, Samuel". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 48.
  7. Kemp, Sandra; Mitchell, Charlotte; Trotter, David, eds. (1997). "Gordon, Samuel (1871–1927)". The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-811760-5.
  8. Cheyette, Bryan (1982–1986). "From apology to revolt: Benjamin Farjeon, Amy Levy and the Post-emancipation Anglo-Jewish novel, 1880–1900". Jewish Historical Studies. Jewish Historical Society of England. 29: 253–265. JSTOR 29779819.
  9. Alderman, Geoffrey (2014). "English Jews or Jews of the English Persuasion? Reflections on the Emancipation of Anglo-Jewry". In Birnbaum, Pierre; Katznelson, Ira (eds.). Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-4008-6397-6.
  10. Rubinstein, William D.; Jolles, Michael A.; Rubinstein, Hillary L., eds. (2011). "Gordon, Samuel". The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6. OCLC 793104984.
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