Agnon, Shmuel Yosef.

Agnon, Shmuel Yosef

(born Samuel Josef Czaczkes, 1888 - 1970). Hebrew writer. Born in Galicia, Agnon received a traditional Jewish education and made extensive study of Hasidic stories. He immigrated to Palestine in 1907. As other Hebrew writers were influenced by European trends, Agnon reintroduced traditional Hebrew styles and became the undisputed master of modern Hebrew fiction. His work represents a fusion of irony, sophisticated realism, and a dreamlike romanticism. At the center of his creation stands the Jew in his various psychological and sociological manifestations: the man of faith, the nihilist, the victim of pogroms and the Holocaust, the pioneer, and the saint. Noteworthy among those works translated into English are Ha - khnasat kallah (1930; translated as The Bridal Canopy, 1937), Yamim noraim (1937; translated as Days of Awe,

1948), Oreah natah lalun (1939; translated as A Guest for the Night, 1968), and Ad olam (1954; translated as Forever More, 1961). Twenty - One Stories appeared in 1970. Agnon was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966, the first Hebrew writer to be so honored.