Rudolph Edgar Block Explained

Rudolph Edgar Block[1] [2]
Birth Date:6 December 1870
Birth Place:New York City
Death Place:Tucson, Arizona
Occupation:journalist, columnist, author
Spouse:Eleanor Block
Children:Rudolph,[3] Albert

Rudolph Edgar Block (December 6, 1870 – April 29, 1940) was a Jewish American journalist, columnist, and author. Much of his writing was done under the pen name of Bruno Lessing.

Biography

Rudolph Block began his career as a journalist in 1888. He worked first as a news reporter on The New York Sun and later joined The New York World. In 1896 he became the editor of the comic supplements to the Hearst newspapers, a position he held for the next 28 years.[1] During his tenure he supplied text for The Yellow Kid[4] and helped to create such popular series as Happy Hooligan and The Katzenjammer Kids.[1] As "Bruno Lessing" his short stories chronicled life in the Jewish ghetto of New York City.[5] Between 1905 and 1909, many of these tales were published by Cosmopolitan, which at that time was a literary magazine.[6] During the years 1915  - 1916 he also wrote a number of screenplays depicting the Jewish American experience.[7]

Ambrose Bierce, another frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan,[8] mentioned Block in his satirical work The Devil's Dictionary, recounting the author's alleged encounter with a prominent critic.[9] A short poem by Bierce, titled "Rudolph Block", had no apparent connection to the man himself.[10]

An avid traveler, Block wrote about his experiences in the daily newspaper column "Vagabondia", which was published from 1928 through 1939.[11] [12] Along the way he amassed a collection of 1,400 walking sticks, although he himself walked unaided.[13] After his death, the collection of canes, each made from a unique type of wood, was donated to Yale University.[14]

Selected works

External links

Articles
"The End of the Task"

Notes and References

  1. William J. Burling, Bruno Lessing, vol. 28 of Dictionary of Literary Biography, (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1984), pp. 133–136.
  2. News: Bruno Lessing is Dead in Arizona. . St. Petersburg Times. 1940-05-02. 2024-10-20.
  3. News: . Bruno Lessing's Son Gets Post in Seattle . Jewish Daily Bulletin . 1934-04-02 . 2024-10-19. also available at Web site: Bruno Lessing's Son Gets Post in Seattle . Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 1934-04-02 . 2024-10-19. https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jta.org%2F1934%2F04%2F02%2Farchive%2Fbruno-lessings-son-gets-post-in-seattle#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url. 2022-09-20.
  4. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20060819222018/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/ykid/highart.htm. 2006-08-19. Origins of the Kid: High Art. dead. virginia.edu.
  5. Book: Spack, Ruth . The International Story . Cambridge University Press . 1994 . 978-0-521-65797-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=ze40JaU4aKcC&dq=bruno+lessing+the+americanization+of+shadrach+cohen&pg=PA62 . The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen. New York, NY.
  6. Book: Schneirov, Matthew . The Dream of a New Social Order . Columbia University Press . New York . 1994 . 0-231-08290-8. 242.
  7. Web site: Bruno Lessing . IMDb . 1940-04-29 . . 2024-10-19.
  8. Book: Bierce, Ambrose . The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary . University of Georgia Press . 2010-09-15 . 978-0-8203-2634-4 . 340.
  9. Web site: The Devil's Dictionary: story . The Devil’s Dictionary daily definitions . . 2024-10-19.
  10. https://books.google.com/books?id=LeIQAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22What+parallel,+neighbor,+be+pleased+to+expound%22&pg=PA373 Shapes Of Clay, vol. 4 of The Collected Works Of Ambrose Bierce, (New York & Washington: Neale Pub. Co., 1910) p. 373.
  11. The New York American April 5, 1935
  12. The Milwaukee Sentinel December 21, 1939
  13. Book: Catalogue of a private collection of walking sticks . 1920 . Rudolph Block . 24601718M . New York . 1041790652 . .
  14. http://lumberjocks.com/mmh/blog/8996 Rudolph Block's Collection: Canes Of Various Woods
  15. Book: Lambert, Josh . American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide . Jewish Publication Society . 2010 . 9780827610026 . https://books.google.com/books?id=mm9AmF1bSD4C&dq=Children+of+Men+Bruno+Lessing&pg=PT35 . 35 . Children of Men.

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