Lore Segal: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Short description|American novelist (1928–2024)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=AprilOctober 20142024}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Lore Segal

| nationality = Austrian–American

| birth_name = Lore Vailer Groszmann

| birth_date = {{birth date|1928|3|98}}

| birth_place = [[Vienna]], [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]]

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|10|7|1928|3|98}}

| death_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.

| spouse = {{marriage|David Segal|1961|1970|end=d}}

| children = 2

| occupation = Writer{{hlist|Author|teacher|translator}}

| period = 1964–2024

| education = [[University of London]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])

}}

'''Lore Vailer Segal''' (née '''Groszmann''',; March 8, 1928 – October 7, 2024) was an Austrian-American novelist, translator, teacher, short story writer, and author of children's books. Her novel ''Shakespeare's Kitchen'' was a finalist for the [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 2008.<ref name="marytaylor">{{Cite journal|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 July 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727085732/http://www.missourireview.org/content/dynamic/text_detail.php?text_id=1834|title=A Conversation with Lore Segal|url=https://www.missourireview.com/article/a-conversation-with-lore-segal/|date=1 December 1, 2007|volume=30.4 (Winter 2007)|journal=[[The Missouri Review]]|access-date=2020-03-March 12, 2020|first1=Lore|last1=Segal|first2=Mary L. |last2=Tabor}}</ref>

==Early life==

An only child, SegalLore Vailer Groszmann was born on March 8, 1928, in [[Vienna]], Austria, into a middle-class Jewish family. Her father, Ignatz, was a chief bank accountant and her mother, Franziska was a housewife.<ref name = Green>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/books/lore-segal-dead.html|title = Lore Segal, Mordant Memoirist of Émigré Life, Dies at 96|last = Green|first = Penelope|date = October 7, 2024|accessdate = October 7, 2024|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|url-access = limited}}</ref>

When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, SegalGroszmann's father found himself jobless and threatened. He listed the family on the American immigration quota, and in December that year Lore Segal joined other Jewish children on the first wave of the [[Kindertransport]] rescue mission, seeking safety in England."<ref name="jewishhistory">{{Cite web|url=https://access.cjh.org/home.php?type=extid&term=413699#1|title=AHC Interview with Lore Segal &mdash; CJH Digital Collections|date=2009|last=Segal|first=Lore|publisher=Center for Jewish History|language=en|access-date=12 March 12, 2020}}</ref>

While with her English foster parents, she found a purple notebook and started writing, filling its 36 pages with German prose. It was the beginning of a novel she would eventually write in English, ''Other People's Houses''.<ref name="jewishhistory" />

On her eleventh birthday, her parents arrived in England on a domestic servants visa. Despite his refugee status, Lore Segal'sIgnatz fatherGroszmann was labeled a German-speaking alien and interned on the [[History of the Isle of Man#Modern period|Isle of Man]],<ref name="martin2005" /> where he suffered a series of strokes. He died a few days before the war ended.<ref Lorename Segal= thenShaer>{{cite movednews|url to= Londonhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/magazine/lore-segal-writing-death.html|title with= A Master Storyteller, at the End of Her Story|last = Shaer|first = Matthew|date = October 6, 2024|accessdate = October 7, 2024|magazine = [[The New York Times Magazine]]|url-access = limited}}</ref> Lore Groszmann and her mother then moved to London, where she would attendattended the [[Bedford College (London)|Bedford College for Women]] at the [[University of London]] on a scholarship. She graduated in 1948 with an honors degree in English literature.<ref name="nypl2009">{{Cite web|url=http://archives.nypl.org/mss/18766|title=Lore Segal papers : 1897-20091897–2009 [bulk 1939-19901939–1990]|website=archives.nypl.org|access-date=March 12 March, 2020|quote= After the War, she attended Bedford College, University of London, and in 1948 received a degree in English literature. [...]In May 1951, she and much of her family emigrated to New York City. }}</ref>

In 1951, after spending three years in the [[Dominican Republic]] with her mother, waiting for their US entry permit to arrive, they moved to [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]], New York City, where they shared a two-room apartment with her grandmother and uncle.<ref name = Green/>

In 1961, she married David Segal, an editor at [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]].<ref name = Shaer/>

==Career==

Between 1968 and 1996, Segal taught writing at [[Columbia University]]'s School of the Arts, [[Princeton University|Princeton]], [[Bennington College]], [[Sarah Lawrence]], the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]], and [[Ohio State University]], from which she retired in 1996. She currentlylater teachestaught at [[92nd Street Y|92 Y]].<ref name="segal">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mhpbooks.com/lore-segal/biography/|title=BIOGRAPHY &mdash; Lore Segal|website=www.loresegal.com|access-date=12 March 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040508061108/http://www.loresegal.net/|archive-date=8 May 8, 2004|url-status=live}}</ref>

Segal published her first novel, ''Other People's Houses'', in 1964 to widespread acclaim.<ref name = Green/> Collecting her refugee stories from ''The New Yorker'' and writing a few more, Segal fictionalized her experience growing up in five different English households, fromin theEngland.<ref wealthyname Orthodox= Jewish Levines to the working-class Hoopers.Shaer/>

In 1985, Segal's third novel ''Her First American'' was published,<ref name = Green/> which ''The New York Times'' praised, saying, "Lore Segal may have come closer than anyone to writing The Great American Novel." It tells the story of Ilka Weissnix, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Europe, and her relationship with Carter Bayoux, a middle-aged black intellectual, "her first American".<ref name = Green/> Segal based the character of Carter Bayoux on her friend [[Horace R. Cayton, Jr.]] She received an [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] Award for the novel.

''Shakespeare's Kitchen'', published in 2007, was a finalist for the [[Pulitzer Prize]].<ref name = Green/> Thirteen stories make up the novel, each following members of the Concordance Institute, a Connecticut think tank.

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Her last novel ''Half the Kingdom'' was published by Melville House in October 2013.<ref name = Green/>

Regarding her work, Segal said, "I want to write about the stuff – in the midst of all the stew of being a human being – that is permanent, where Adam and Eve and I would have had the same experiences. I really am less interested in the social change."<ref name="italie2011">{{Cite news|date=22 May 22, 2011|first=Hillel|last=Italie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026191706/http://onlineathens.com/stories/052211/liv_832913011.shtml|title=Author Lore Segal is still in love with the world {{!}} Online Athens|publisher=[[Athens Banner-Herald]]|archive-date=26 October 26, 2013|url=http://onlineathens.com/stories/052211/liv_832913011.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her novels often deal with the process of assimilation, from a refugee arriving in a new country which must become her home (as in ''Her First American''), to a flighty poet finding her footing in a constantly moving literary world (as in ''Lucinella'').<ref name = Green/>

Segal continued to write until the end of her life, authoring short stories in ''[[The New Yorker]]''; the last one, authored by dictation as her health declined, was published online eight days before her death.<ref name = Shaer/><ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/lore-segal|title = Lore Segal|website = [[The New Yorker]]|accessdate = October 7, 2024}}</ref><ref name = Shear>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/magazine/lore-segal-writing-death.html|title = A Master Storyteller, at the End of Her Story|last = Shear|first = Matthew|date = October 6, 2024|accessdate = October 7, 2024|magazine = [[The New York Times Magazine]]|url-access = limited}}</ref>

==Personal life and death==

InSegal 1961and her husband, SegalDavid, were married Davidfor Segalnine years, anuntil editorhis atdeath [[Alfredfrom A.a Knopf|Knopf]],heart whoattack diedin nine1970, yearsaged later42. Together theyThey had two children,.<ref Beatricename and= Jacob.Shaer/>

Segal and her mother, Franzi Groszmann, appeared in the films ''My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports'' (1996), directed by Melissa Hacker, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination, and ''[[Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport]]'', directed by [[Mark Jonathan Harris]] and produced by [[Deborah Oppenheimer]], which won the [[Academy Award for Documentary Feature]] in 2001. Segal's mother was the last survivor of the parents who placed their children in the Kindertransport program. Franzi died in 2005, one hundred years old.<ref name="martin2005">{{Cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/nyregion/franzi-groszmann-100-dies-sent-daughter-from-nazi-lands.html|title=Franzi Groszmann, 100, Dies; Sent Daughter From Nazi Lands|date=October 2, 2005-10-02|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-March 12, 2020|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Segal lived on the [[Upper West Side]] of [[Manhattan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://qconline.com/life/author-lore-segal-is-still-in-love-with-the-world/article_de85c849-35da-585d-be01-633ac5789198.html|title=Author Lore Segal is still in love with the world|last=Italie|first=Hillel|website=Dispatch-Argus-QCOnline|date=May 22, 2011 |language=en|access-date=2019-04-April 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414031720/https://qconline.com/life/author-lore-segal-is-still-in-love-with-the-world/article_de85c849-35da-585d-be01-633ac5789198.html|archive-date=14 April 14, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> She entered [[palliative care]] at her home after a heart attack in June 2024, and died there on October 7, 2024, at the age of 96.<ref name = ShearShaer/><ref name = Green/>

==Work==

===Novels===

* ''{{cite book|title = Other People's Houses''|year = (1964|publisher = [[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt]]}}<ref name = Shaer/>

* {{cite book|title = Lucinella|year = 1976|publisher = [[Farrar, Strauss and Giroux]]|isbn = 0374194254}}

* ''Lucinella'' (1976)

* ''{{cite book|title = Her First American''|year = (1985)|publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf]]|isbn = 0394536274}}

* ''{{cite book|title = Shakespeare's Kitchen''|year = (2007)|publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]|isbn = 9781595581518}}

* ''{{cite book|title = Half The Kingdom''|year = (2013)|publisher = [[Melville House]]|isbn = 9781612193021}}

<!-- Uncited and apparently incomplete

===Short stories===

*"Burglars in the Flesh" (1980)

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*"Spry for Frying" (2011)

*"Ladies' Lunch" (2017)

-->

===Translations===

* {{cite book|title = Gallows Songs of [[Christian Morgenstern]]|translator-last1 = Snodgrass|translator-first1 = W. D.|translator-link1 = W. D. Snodgrass|translator-last2 = Segal|translator-first2 = Lore|publisher = [[University of Michigan Press]]|year = 1967|lccn = 67025337}}

* ''Gallows Songs of Christian Morgenstern'' (1967)

* ''{{cite book|title = The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm''|year = (1973)|translator-last1 = Segal|translator-first1 = Lore|translator-last2 = Jarrell|translator-first2 = Randall|others = (Illustrated by [[Maurice Sendak]])|publisher = [[Farrar, Strauss and Giroux]]|isbn = 0374513589}}

* {{cite book|title = The Book of Adam to Moses|date = 1987|translator-last1 = Segal|translator-first1 = Lore|translator-last2 = Baskin|translator-first2 = Leonard|isbn = 0394867572}}

* ''The Book of Adam to Moses'' (1987)

* ''{{cite book|title = The Story of King Saul and King David''|date = (1991)|translator-last1 = Segal|translator-first1 = Lore|isbn = 0805240888|publisher = [[Schocken Books]]}}

===Children's books===

* {{cite book|title = Tell Me a Mitzi|date = 1970|others = Illustrated by Harriet Pincus|lccn = 69014980|publisher = [[Farrar, Strauss and Giroux]]}}

* ''Tell Me a Mitzi'' (1970)

* {{cite book|title = All the Way Home|year = 1973|others = Illustrated by James Marshall|isbn = 0374302154|publisher = [[Farrar, Strauss and Giroux]]}}

* ''All the Way Home'' (1973)

* {{cite book|title = Tell Me a Trudy|year = 1977|others = Illustrated by Rosemary Wells|isbn = 0374373957|publisher = [[Farrar, Strauss and Giroux]]}}

* ''Tell Me a Trudy'' (1977)

* ''{{cite book|title = The Story of Old Mrs. Brubeck and How She Looked for Trouble and Where She Found Him''|year = (1981)|others = Illustrated by Marcia Sewall|publisher = [[Pantheon Books]]|isbn = 0394840399}}

* ''{{cite book|title = The Story of Mrs. Lovewright and Purrless Her Cat''|year = (1985)|others = (Illustrated by [[Paul O. Zelinsky]])|isbn = 0394968174|publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf]]}}

* {{cite book|title = Morris the Artist|year = 2003|others = Illustrated by Boris Kulikov|isbn = 0374350639|publisher = [[Farrar, Strauss and Giroux]]}}

* ''Morris the Artist'' (2003)

* ''{{cite book|title = Why Mole Shouted and Other Stories''|year = (2004)|others = Illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier|isbn = 0374384177|publisher = [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]}}

* ''{{cite book|title = More Mole Stories and Little Gopher, Too''|year = (2005)|others = Illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier|isbn = 0374350264 |publisher = [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]}}

==Awards==

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*National Council on the Arts and Humanities Grant, [https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/NEA-Annual-Report-1968.pdf 1967–1968]

*Guggenheim Fellowship, 1965–1966

==References==▼

{{Reflist}}▼

== External links ==

* {{IMDb name|0781816}}

*[http://www.mhpbooks.com/lore-segal Lore Segal Author Profile] Melville House

*[http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/mss18766.pdf Lore Segal Papers] Manuscripts and Archives, New York Public Library

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* [https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/lore-segal-03-25-19 Lore Segal on Memory as the Writer's Notebook] "The New Yorker," March 18, 2019

* [https://player.fm/series/the-new-yorker-the-writers-voice-new-fiction-from-the-new-yorker-1283677/lore-segal-reads-dandelionLore Lore Segal Reads Dandelion] "The New Yorker, March 25, 2019

▲==References==

▲{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Kindertransport refugees]]

[[Category:The New Yorker people]]▼

[[Category:Novelists from New Jersey]]

▲[[Category:TheNovelists from New YorkerYork peopleCity]]

[[Category:Novelists from Ohio]]

[[Category:Novelists from Vermont]]

[[Category:Ohio State University faculty]]

[[Category:People from the Upper West Side]]

[[Category:Princeton University faculty]]

[[Category:Sarah Lawrence College faculty]]

[[Category:Novelists fromThe New YorkYorker Citypeople]]

[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]