Rudolph Edgar Block
| File:Bruno Lessing 1916.jpg | |
| Born | December 6, 1870 |
| Died | April 29, 1940 (aged 69) |
| Occupations | 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.[2]
Biography
[edit | edit source]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,[citation needed] 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
[edit | edit source]- 1903 Children of Men[15]
- 1909 Jake or Sam
- 1914 With the Best Intention
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c William J. Burling, Bruno Lessing, vol. 28 of Dictionary of Literary Biography, (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1984), pp. 133–136.
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- ^ Shapes Of Clay, vol. 4 of The Collected Works Of Ambrose Bierce, (New York & Washington: Neale Pub. Co., 1910) p. 373.
- ^ The New York American April 5, 1935
- ^ The Milwaukee Sentinel December 21, 1939
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- ^ Rudolph Block's Collection: Canes Of Various Woods lumberjocks.com. Retrieved: January 27, 2014.
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External links
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- Bruno Lessing photo 1903
- Articles
- "The End of the Task"
- Short story: pp. 600–607.
- Dramatic reading by Ethel Olson.
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- 1870 births
- 1940 deaths
- 20th-century American Jews
- 20th-century American journalists
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- American columnists
- 20th-century American male journalists
- American male non-fiction writers
- American male short story writers
- American short story writers
- Jewish American journalists
- Jewish American non-fiction writers
- Jewish American short story writers
- Journalists from New York City