Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Hebrew: שמואל יוסף עגנון, July 17, 1888 - February 17, 1970) was a Hebrew nobel prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon. In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon. Agnon was born in Galicia, later immigrated as a Zionist to Ottoman Palestine, and died in Jerusalem. His works deal with the conflict between the traditional Jew life and language and the modern world. They also attempt to recapture the fading traditions of the European shtetl (village). In a wider context, he also contributed to the narrator's character in modern literature. Agnon was awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with poet Nelly Sachs in 1966. Agnon was born Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes in Buczacz, Galicia, now Ukraine. Officially, his date of birth on the Hebrew calendar was 18 Av 5648 (July 26) , but he always claimed to have been born on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av, the Ninth...