Ephraim Kishon - Literary Career

Literary Career

Kishon initially lived in the "Sha'ar Ha'Aliyah" transit camp near Haifa, and soon afterwards moved to Kibbutz Kfar Hahoresh, in which he worked as a male nurse while during his free time he learned the Hebrew language with the help of his neighbor Joseph Bilitzer. During this period he wrote several humorous lists for the Hungarian newspaper "Új Kelet". Afterwards Kishon moved to a housing project. He studied Hebrew at the Ulpan "Etzion" in Jerusalem, and soon became a proficient in the language. Nevertheless, his heavy Hungarian accent accompanied him throughout his life.

Mastering Hebrew with remarkable speed, in 1951 Kishon began writing a satirical column in the easy-Hebrew daily, Omer, after only two years in the country. later on Kishon began writing for the newspaper "Davar" (which was very influential at the time) in which he published a satire called "Blaumilch Canal". That same year he published his first book in Israel "Ha-ole ve Ha-Yored le-Chayenu" which was written in Hungarian and translated into Hebrew by Avigdor Meiri. The book was mostly about the life experiences of new immigrants in Israel during the 1950s.

In 1952 Kishon began writing a regular satirical column called "Had Gadya" in the daily Hebrew tabloid "Ma'ariv". Kishon kept writing the column for about 30 years, while in the first two decades he published a new column almost every day. Within a few years after launching his writing career in Israel Kishon became one of the most prominent humorists and satirists in the country.

Kishon's extraordinary linguistic inventiveness and flair for creating characters was carried over into his work for the theater. Collections of his humorous writings have appeared in Hebrew and in translation. Among the English translations are Look Back Mrs. Lot (1960), Noah's Ark, Tourist Class (1962), The Seasick Whale (1965), and two books on the Six-Day War and its aftermath, So Sorry We Won (1967), and Woe to the Victors (1969). Two collections of his plays have also appeared in Hebrew: Shemo Holekh Lefanav (1953) and Ma´arkhonim (1959).

Kishon's books have been translated into 37 languages and sold particularly well in Germany. Kishon rejected the idea of universal guilt for the Holocaust. He said: “It gives me great satisfaction to see the grandchildren of my executioners queuing up to buy my books.” Until his death in 1979, Friedrich Torberg translated his work into German. Thereafter Kishon did the German translations himself.