Ernst Pawel

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Ernst Pawel (January 23, 1920 — August 16, 1994) was a German American translator who primarily worked for New York Life Insurance from 1946 to 1982. Outside of insurance, Pawel wrote about the Holocaust and Sigmund Freud as part of his three books from 1951 to 1960. Some works that Pawel translated between 1954 to 1966 include works by Georges Simenon and Lotte Lehman.

As a biographer, Pawel released works about Franz Kafka and Theodor Herzl during the 1980s. Following his death in 1994, Pawel's biography on Heinrich Heine and his memoir was posthumously released. Of his works, The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and was nominated for the American Book Award for Nonfiction in 1984.

Early life and education

Pawel's birth occurred in Breslau, Germany on January 23, 1920 to a Jewish couple.[1][2] When Adolf Hitler led Germany during the early 1930s, Pawel went to Yugoslavia with his mother and father.[3] While in Belgrade, Pawel worked at a bookstore during his teens.[4] He also "joined clandestine Communist and Zionist youth groups".[5] During the late 1930s, Pawel moved to the United States.[6] For his post-secondary education, Pawel went to City College and the New School for Social Research.[3]

Career

Positions

Pawel began working for the Serbian Daily while he lived in New York.[7] Pawel was part of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.[3] Throughout the war, Pawel was a translator across the globe from the early to mid 1940s. After being hired by New York Life Insurance in 1946, Pawel expanded his career to public relations while continuing to work in translation.[8][9] While at New York Life, Pawel wanted to leave during the first month of his position before he stayed with the company.[10] In 1982, Pawel ended his tenure at New York Life.[6]

Works

As an author, Pawel wrote about the Holocaust with The Island in Time.[11] His 1951 book took place at a fictional Italian refugee camp.[9] With From the Dark Tower, Pawel set his book at an American insurance company. Pawel's 1957 book was about the main character's behavioral changes after the suicide of his boss.[12] In 1960, Pawel released In the Absence of Magic. Taking place on an island, Pawel wrote about two former Sigmund Freud followers.[13]

With translations, Pawel was a co-translator on poetry by Georges Simenon in 1954.[14] In 1965, Pawel was the sole translator on a Lotte Lehman work about opera by Richard Strauss.[15] The following year, Pawel translated a book on nuclear strategy by Raymond Aron.[1]

For his biographies, Pawel wrote about Franz Kafka with his 1984 work entitled The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka.[16] In his Kafka book, Pawel included a "political and social background of ... turn-of-the-century Prague".[17] During 1989, Pawel released a biography on Theodor Herzl titled The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl.[18] In a review by the Boston Globe, Harry Zohn said Pawel "[editorialized], [vented] some of his personal prejudices and [made] misstatements" with his Herzl book.[19]

From 1992 to 1994, Pawel was writing a memoir and a Heinrich Heine biography.[4] At the time of his death in 1994, Pawel's memoir was incomplete while his Heine work was completed.[20] In Life in Darks Ages: A Memoir, Pawel wrote about the events that occurred during his life between the 1920s to 1940s. His daughter completed the memoir before it was posthumously released in 1995.[5] That year, the Pawel biography on Heine was released posthumously under the title of The Poet Dying: Heinrich Heine's Last Years in Paris.[21]

Nomination and awards

When the American Book Awards replaced the National Book Awards during the 1980s, Pawel was nominated for the 1984 American Book Award for Nonfiction with The Nightmare of Reason.[22][23] That year, The Nightmare of Reason received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography.[24] In 1985, Pawel received the Alfred Harcourt Award for his Kafka book.[25]

Personal life and death

Pawel had two children during his marriage before his death in Great Neck, New York. He died from lung cancer on August 16, 1994.[8][10]

References

  1. ^ a b Trosky, Susan M., ed. (1991). "Pawel, Ernst 1920-". Contemporary Authors. Vol. 131. Detroit and London: Gale Research Inc. p. 359. ISBN 081031956X. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  2. ^ Shapiro, Elliot (July 23, 1995). "A man immersed in the themes of Judasim". The Buffalo News. p. G-8.
  3. ^ a b c Colby, Vineta, ed. (1995). "Pawel, Ernst". World Authors, 1985-1990. Wilson Authors Series. New York and Dublin: The H. W. Wilson Company. p. 662. ISBN 0824208757. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Schaer, Sidney C. (August 18, 1994). "Ernst Pawel, 74, Wrote Franz Kafka Biography". Newsday. Nassau. p. A61.
  5. ^ a b Harris, Michael (July 18, 1995). "One Man's Tale of the Holocaust and Human Suffering". Los Angeles Times. p. E7.
  6. ^ a b Singer, David; Seldin, Ruth R., eds. (1996). "Pawel, Ernst". American Jewish Year Book 1996. Vol. 96. New York: The American Jewish Committee. p. 559. ISBN 0874951100. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  7. ^ Gilson, Estelle (November–December 1995). "Growing Up in History". Congress Monthly. Vol. 62, no. 6. The American Jewish Congress. p. 20. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Ernst Pawel, 74, Biographer, Dies". The New York Times. August 19, 1994. p. A24. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Wildhack, William (June 23, 1951). "DP Jews; Plight Is Expertly Told". The Indianapolis News. p. 2.
  10. ^ a b Christy, Desmond (August 26, 1994). "Ernst Pawel". The Guardian. sec. Second p. 18.
  11. ^ "Kafka the focus of biographer's talk at the Rockland Center for the Arts". The Journal-News. April 23, 1987. sec. Weekend p. 12.
  12. ^ F. G. H. (June 30, 1957). "Rebellion Against Conformity". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. B 23.
  13. ^ Lewin, Jacqueline (April 24, 1960). "Difficult Novel of Ideas". The Boston Globe. p. C—23.
  14. ^ Price, Blanche (March 7, 1954). "Facile Narrative". The Hartford Courant Magazine. p. Eighteen.
  15. ^ Stevenson, Samuel W. (February 28, 1965). "Five Operas As Strauss Wrote Them". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. L-9.
  16. ^ Shloss, Carol (May 27, 1984). "A chronicle of homelessness". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. sec. H p. 1.
  17. ^ Eder, Richard (July 7, 1984). "Biography sketches Kafka's real world". The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec. The Los Angeles Times. p. I-1.
  18. ^ Zohn, Harry (December 10, 1989). "A richly-detailed examination of the father of Zionism". The Boston Globe. p. B40.
  19. ^ Zohn 1989, p. B41
  20. ^ "Novelist Ernst Pawel". The Muncie Star. The Wire Services. August 20, 1994. p. 3C.
  21. ^ Siegel, Lee (August 27, 1995). "Laughing at Death". Newsday. sec. FanFare p. 37.
  22. ^ Fehrman, Craig (October 30, 2011). "The Short, Unsuccessful Life of the American Book Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  23. ^ Taylor, Robert (October 18, 1984). "11 finalists for American Book Awards". The Boston Globe. p. 40.
  24. ^ "6 Honored at Fifth Annual L. A. Times Book Awards". The Los Angeles Times. November 3, 1984. sec. Part 1 p. 30.
  25. ^ "Ernst Pawel Honored With Harcourt Award". The New York Times. May 29, 1985. p. sec C p. 21. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
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