Literary Activity
The earliest publication relating to the Jews was issued in 1763 from the press of Andrew Stewart; it was a sermon by Moses Mendelssohn delivered by his preceptor David Hirchel Frankel, and translated from the German. The first Hebrew Bible that appeared in the United States was published in Philadelphia in 1814 by Thomas Dobson, the printer being William Fry. The best-known printer of Hebrew books in the country was Charles Sherman, who imported matrices from Amsterdam; Abraham Hart was one of the best-known general publishers, Thackeray's first published book being issued with his imprint. The first dealer in the United States who dealt exclusively in rare books was Moses Polock (1817–1903); at his death he was the oldest bibliophile in the country. The original Jewish Publication Society was established in Philadelphia November 9, 1845, Abraham Hart being its first president. The society owed its existence to Isaac Leeser. It published eleven works, including two by Grace Aguilar. The present Jewish Publication Society of America, a national organization, with headquarters at Philadelphia, was formed June 3, 1888; Morris Newburger was its first president. The society has published many works of value, including Israel Zangwill's Children of the Ghetto; a new translation of the Bible was started in the early 20th century, the Book of Psalms having already been issued by 1904. In 1904, Mayer Sulzberger was chairman of the publication committee; Edwin Wolf was president.
In 1904 the best collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts in the city, that of Mayer Sulzberger, was transferred to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America at New York.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Jews In Philadelphia
Famous quotes containing the words literary and/or activity:
“In the middle of the next century, when the literary establishment will reflect the multicultural makeup of this country and not be dominated by assimiliationists with similar tastes, from similar backgrounds, and of similar pretensions, Langston Hughes will be to the twentieth century what Walt Whitman was to the nineteenth.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“In literary circles, the men of trust and consideration, bookmakers, editors, university deans and professors, bishops, too, were by no means men of the largest literary talent, but usually of a low and ordinary intellectuality, with a sort of mercantile activity and working talent. Indifferent hacks and mediocrities tower, by pushing their forces to a lucrative point, or by working power, over multitudes of superior men, in Old as in New England.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)