Yaakov Shabtai
{{Short description|Israeli novelist, playwright and translator}}
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| name = Yaakov Shabtai
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| native_name = יעקב שבתאי
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1934|3|8}}
| birth_place = Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
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| death_date = {{death date and age|1981|8|4|1934|3|8}}
| death_place = Tel Aviv, Israel
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| occupation = Novelist, playwright, and translator
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| children = 2, including Hamutal Shabtai
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| awards = *1978 Bernstein Prize
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Yaakov Shabtai ({{langx|he|יעקב שבתאי}}; March 8, 1934 – August 4, 1981) was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator.
Biography
Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia, but returned to Tel Aviv in 1967.[http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/shabtai-yaakov-tf Shabtai, Yaakov – Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century] Bookrags, accessed July 14, 2011 {{dead link|date=January 2016}}
His daughter, Hamutal Shabtai, wrote a science fiction novel that foresaw the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite news|last=Halperin|first=Neta|date=7 April 2020|title=The Coronavirus Novel: An Israeli Author Wrote a Book on the 2020 Pandemic 23 Years Ago|language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-this-israeli-author-wrote-about-the-2020-pandemic-23-years-ago-1.8747689|access-date=2022-01-01}}{{Cite web|last=Bloom|first=Danny|date=8 April 2020|title=Prophetic Israeli sci-fi novel from 23 years ago predicted current pandemic|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/prophetic-israeli-sci-fi-novel-from-23-years-ago-predicted-current-pandemic/|access-date=2022-01-01|website=Times of Israel|language=en-US}} Another daughter, Orly, is a clinical psychologist.[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-this-israeli-author-wrote-about-the-2020-pandemic-23-years-ago-1.8747689 Israeli Author Wrote a Book on the 2020 Pandemic 23 Years Ago], Haaretz His brother Aharon Shabtai is a poet and translator from Ancient Greek.
Shabtai died of a heart attack in 1981.{{Cite news |last=Alter |first=Robert |date=1987-08-09 |title=Life at the Last Moment |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/09/books/life-at-the-last-moment.html |access-date=2022-08-03 |issn=0362-4331}}
Literary career
His best known work is Zikhron Devarim (1977), published in English in 1985 as Past Continuous. Written as a single paragraph, it was the first novel in vernacular Hebrew. Although the story is told in separate sentences, there is no separation into chapters.[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shabtai-yaakov Jewish Virtual Library, Yaakov Shabtai]
In its English translation the novel received international acclaim as a unique work of modernism, prompting critic Gabriel Josipovici of The Independent to name it the greatest novel of the decade, comparing it to Proust's In Search of Lost Time.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}
Shabtai was a well-known playwright, author of Crowned Head and The Spotted Tiger. He translated many plays into Hebrew, including works by Harold Pinter, Neil Simon, Noël Coward and Eugene O'Neill. Other works by Shabtai include Uncle Peretz Takes Off, a collection of short stories, and Past Perfect (Sof Davar), a continuation of Past Continuous in terms of narrative and style, published posthumously. In 2006 a collection of early stories was published under the title A Circus in Tel Aviv.
Shabtai's daughter Hamutal recalls him pacing the house reciting passages from his books to hear how they sounded.
Awards and recognition
- In 1978, Shabtai was awarded the Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category), which was the inaugural year of the prize.
- In 1978, he was awarded the Kinor David Prize for Plays.
- In 1982, he was posthumously awarded the Agnon Prize for literature.
- In 1999, the Tel Aviv Municipality named a street after him.
Published works
=Works translated into English=
- Past Continuous (Zikhron Devarim, He: זכרון דברים) Jewish Publication Society of America, 1985, {{ISBN|0-8276-0239-1}}
- Past Perfect (Sof Davar, He: סוף דבר) Viking Press, 1987, {{ISBN|0-670-81308-7}}
- Uncle Peretz Takes Off (Ha-Dod Peretz Mamri, He: הדוד פרץ ממריא) Overlook, 2004, {{ISBN|1-58567-340-4}}
=Other works=
- The Wondrous Journey of the Toad (Ha-Masah Ha-Muflah Shel Ha-Karpad, He: המסע המופלא של הקרפד; Children's book), 1964.
- Poems and Ballads (Shirei HaZemer, lit. The Song of Songs), 1992.
- The Spotted Tiger and Other Plays (Namer Havarburot Ve-Aherim), 1995.
- Crowned Head and Other Plays (Keter Ba-Rosh Ve-Aherim), 1995.
- A Circus in Tel Aviv (Kirkas be-Tel Aviv, short stories, some alternate versions of stories from Uncle Peretz Takes Off), 2006.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/prooftexts.33.2.251?seq=1 Ruins of the Present: Yaakov Shabtai's Anti-Nostalgia, Saul Noam Zaritt, Prooftexts Vol. 33, No. 2 (Spring 2013), pp. 251-273]
External links
- [http://www.ithl.org.il/page_14614 Yaakov Shabtai] at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
- [https://www.israelnationalnews.com/tags/Yaakov_Shabtai Yaakov_Shabtai] News and updates about Yaakov Shabtai
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Category:Writers from Tel Aviv
Category:Israeli male novelists
Category:Jewish dramatists and playwrights
Category:Israeli male dramatists and playwrights
Category:Bernstein Prize recipients
Category:20th-century Israeli Jews
Category:20th-century Israeli translators
Category:20th-century Israeli novelists
Category:20th-century Israeli dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century Israeli male writers