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| | Powell's Books - Gershom Scholem: A Life in Letters, 1914-1982 by Gershom Scholem |
 | | Perhaps the greatest scholar of Jewish mysticism in the twentieth century, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) once said of himself, "I have no biography, only a bibliography." Yet, in thousands of letters written over his lifetime, Scholem's biography does unfold, inscribing a life that epitomized the intellectual ferment and political drama of an era. |
 | | In the letters, we witness the travails and vicissitudes of the Scholem family, a drama in which Gershom is banished by his father for his anti-kaiser Zionist sentiments; his antiwar, socialist brother is hounded and murdered; and his mother and remaining brothers are forced to emigrate. |
 | | We see Scholem's friendships with some of the most intriguing intellectuals of the twentieth century — such as Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor Adorno — blossom and, on occasion, wither. |
| www.powells.com /cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0674006429-2 (539 words) |
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