Noah Gordon (novelist)
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox writer Noah Gordon (November 11, 1926Template:SndNovember 22, 2021) was an American novelist.
Early life and career
Gordon was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1926, the son of a pawnbroker.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> He served in the US Army at the end of World War II.<ref>Noah Gordon Biography</ref><ref name="nytobit">Template:Cite news</ref> He reported for the Worcester Telegram until he was hired by the Boston Herald in 1959.<ref name=":0" />
Works and reception
Some of the topics covered within his novels include medical history and medical ethics. Later he began to focus more on themes relating to the Inquisition and Jewish cultural history.
Gordon's debut novel, The Rabbi, spent 26 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list in 1965.<ref name=":0" /> When publishing The Physician, the book was picked up by Random House - Germany, which promoted the book in Europe, where Gordon became very popular in Spain and Italy.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> His novel The Last Jew won "Que Leer Prize" (Spain) and "Boccaccio Literary Prize" (Italy).
Though Gordon's reception internationally has been quite strong, as of 2015, the Boston Globe described Gordon as relatively unknown in the United States.<ref name=":0" /> New York Times writer Carey Goldberg described a similar tension between Gordon's widespread popularity in Germany and relative lack of awareness in the United States in 1996.<ref name=":1" /> The reasons for the European success of his novel The Physician were discussed in the Forward.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
His novel Shaman won the first James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction in 1993.
Personal life
Gordon had three children with his wife, Lorraine (née Seay).<ref name=":0" /> He died on November 22, 2021, in Dedham, Massachusetts, at the age of 95.<ref>Writer Noah Gordon, author of ‘The Doctor’, dies at 95</ref><ref name="nytobit"/>
Novels
- The Rabbi (1965)
- The Death Committee (1969)
- The Jerusalem Diamond (1979)
- The Last Jew (2000)
- Sam and Other Animal Stories (2002) (children's stories)
- The Winemaker (2007)
Cole family trilogy
- The Physician (1986) (film adaption in 2013)
- Shaman (1992)
- Matters of Choice (1995)
References
External links
- 1926 births
- 2021 deaths
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American novelists
- American male journalists
- American male novelists
- James Fenimore Cooper Prize winners
- Jewish American journalists
- Jewish American novelists
- Journalists from Massachusetts
- Military personnel from Massachusetts
- United States Army personnel of World War II
- Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts