Bruno Lessing
Bruno Lessing, born Rudolph Edgar Block in 1870 in New York City, was a prominent American writer and comic-supplements editor known for his contributions to early Jewish literature and journalism. After graduating from the College of the City of New York, he spent nearly three decades as the comic-supplements editor for the Hearst newspaper syndicate, where he discovered and promoted popular comic characters such as "Happy Hooligan" and "The Katzenjammer Kids." Lessing's literary career began with the publication of his first short story collection, *Children of Men*, in 1903, which depicted the diverse experiences of Jewish immigrants in America, blending themes of hope, disillusionment, and universal struggles with humor and pathos.
He continued to explore Jewish life in his subsequent works, including *With the Best Intention* in 1914, which introduced the beloved character Lapidowitz, a charming schemer navigating life in the Jewish ghetto. After 1919, Lessing shifted his focus to travel writing, producing a popular syndicated column titled "Vagabondia." His life came to an end in Tucson, Arizona, on April 29, 1940. Through his writing and editorial work, Lessing left a significant mark on American literature and the portrayal of Jewish culture in the early 20th century.
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Subject Terms
Bruno Lessing
Fiction Writer
- Born: December 6, 1870
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: April 29, 1940
- Place of death: Tucson, Arizona
Biography
Bruno Lessing was born Rudolph Edgar Block in New York City in 1870. Other than that fact, little else is known about his childhood before college age. He attended the College of the City of New York in the 1880’s and worked during his college years for the New York Sun in 1888, later for the New York Recorder as Sunday editor, and as a reporter for the New York World. After his graduation from CCNY, Lessing began the job that would become his career for twenty-eight years: He became the comic-supplements editor for the Hearst newspaper syndicate.
Shortly after the turn of the century, Lessing exhibited other talents when he began writing short stories; his first collection, Children of Men, appeared in 1903. The stories in this book cover the wide range of experiences in the Jewish ghetto: He deals with the plight of the new arrivals in the United States who come with optimism and sometimes naiveté, looking for a bright new life, but he also addresses those who have become hardened, and sometimes disillusioned with the life they find in America. Even though the stories are about Jewish life, many of them also strike universal themes, such as isolation and rejection. Lessing also portrays striking demonstrations of faith in the midst of adversity as well as reactions to unexpected success. One critic declared the collection to be the best treatment of Anglo-Jewish fiction in its early years as a subgenre. Pathos and humor characterize the stories as Lessing pictures the hardships and the everyday life in the Jewish ghetto.
While Lessing was becoming established as a writer, he was also making his mark in his journalistic work as a comics editor. When he was not creating comic characters himself, he was discovering others who had expertise in doing so. “Happy Hooligan” and “The Katzenjammer Kids” are two of the perennial favorites he discovered. At the same time, he continued to write stories. More than sixty of them were published in magazines that include Collier’s, Cosmopolitan, Everybody’s, Hearst’s Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, McClure’s, and Muncey’s.
Having become quite affluent, as was evident in his collecting some fourteen hundred walking sticks, (later donated to the Smithsonian Institute), Lessing took advantage of his popularity to publish a second volume of stories, With the Best Intention, in 1914. The Jewish ghetto remains the setting, and humor the tone, but much if not most of the pathos is missing. In this volume, like a novel in many ways, with the stories called chapters, the memorable character of Lapidowitz is born. Lapidowitz is the stereotypic schnorrer, an amiable character who lives a life of scheming to get rich quick or find a bride, or anything else that he can get without having to work for it. The character was so popular that a second volume, now considered a rare book, Lapidowitz the Schnorrer, “With the Best Intention” in 1915. After 1919, Lessing’s writing was exclusively a syndicated column titled “Vagabondia,” about his worldwide travels. He died in Tucson, Arizona, on April 29, 1940.