Nathan Asch
Nathan Asch was a notable Jewish-American novelist born on July 10, 1902, in Warsaw, Poland. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1915 and lived in both America and Paris throughout his life. Asch's literary career includes several pre-war novels such as "The Office," "Love in Chartres," "Pay Day," and "The Valley," many of which were published in both Germany and the U.S. He was also a screenwriter for prominent Hollywood studios during the 1930s. His writing is characterized by a compressed prose style and a deep empathy for diverse human experiences, drawing comparisons to contemporaries like Ernest Hemingway. During World War II, Asch served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, receiving commendations such as the Air Medal and Bronze Star. Asch's contributions extend beyond fiction; he wrote for esteemed publications, and his personal papers offer insights into the expatriate literary scene of the 1920s and military life. He passed away from lung cancer on December 23, 1964.
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Subject Terms
Nathan Asch
Writer
- Born: July 10, 1902
- Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland
- Died: December 23, 1964
- Place of death: San Francisco, California
Biography
Nathan Asch was born on July 10, 1902, in Warsaw, Poland, the oldest son of the well-known Jewish novelist, Sholem Asch, and Mathilda (Spira) Asch. His family emigrated to the United States in 1915, and he lived in America and Paris as an adult. His first marriage to Liesl Ingwersen produced one son, David. This marriage ended in divorce in 1930; in 1939, he married Caroline Tasker Miles. He died of lung cancer on December 23, 1964.
Nathan Asch attended schools in Poland, Switzerland, and France. He also attended Columbia and Syracuse universities. From 1937 to 1939, he was a special assistant with the Works Progress Administration in Washington, D.C. He volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, from 1942 to 1945, even though he was exempt from service due to his age, and received the Air Medal and the Bronze Star. Asch is primarily known as a novelist, but he also wrote screenplays for Paramount Pictures, RKO General, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), all during the 1930’s. He contributed stories, articles, and reviews to prestigious periodicals, including The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Yale Review, and Harper’s Bazaar.
Asch’s pre-war novels include The Office, Love in Chartres, Pay Day and The Valley. He wrote a number of novels after completing his World War II military service, but none of these were ever published. Many of his novels were published simultaneously in Germany and in the United States, and some were also translated into Yiddish.
As an expatriate living in Paris during the 1920’s, Asch surrounded himself with other expatriate writers, including Ford Maddox Ford and Ernest Hemingway. His prose style is compressed and reminiscent of Hemingway or Sherwood Anderson, and his work is notable for its empathy for the diversity of the human condition. His personal papers, which present a revealing glimpse into the Paris expatriate literary scene and life in the Armed Services during World War II, are preserved in the Archives of the Winthrop University Library.