Mordecai Richler
| Mordecai Richler | |
|---|---|
Pencil sketch of Mordecai Richler
|
|
| Born |
January 27, 1931 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | July 3, 2001 (aged 70) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | |
Mordecai Richler, CC (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and Barney's Version (1997). His 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He is also well known for the Jacob Two-Two children's fantasy series.
In addition to his fiction, Richler wrote numerous essays about the Jewish community in Canada, and about Canadian and Quebec nationalism. Arriving as immigrants in Canada when English was the country's predominant official language, the Jewish communities in Montreal (a city in the largely francophone province of Quebec) usually acquired English, not French, as a second language after Yiddish. This later put them at odds with the Quebec nationalist movement, which argued for French as the province's only official language. His Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! (1992), a collection of essays about nationalism and anti-Semitism, generated considerable controversy.
The son of Lily (née Rosenberg) and Moses Isaac Richler, a scrap yard dealer, Richler was born on January 27, 1931 and raised on St. Urbain Street in the Mile End area of Montreal. He learned English, French and Yiddish, and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study, but did not complete his degree there. Years later, Richler's mother published an autobiography, The Errand Runner: Memoirs of a Rabbi's Daughter (1981), which discusses Mordecai's birth and upbringing, and the sometimes difficult relationship between them.
...
Wikipedia