E.D. Shor and the Vita Nova Publishing House

• In Event: Russophone Émigré Culture as Part of the World Intellectual Legacy

Abstract

E.D. Shor (1891-1974) is one of the unsung heroes of the Russian emigration. After emigrating from Bolshevik Russia as the secretary to Kandinsky, he spent almost a decade in Germany, where he indefatigably sought to make known the work of Viacheslav Ivanov and Nikolai Berdiaev. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, he spent a year in Italy before emigrating to Palestine, where he spent the last four decades of his life. While in Italy, he was in constant contact with his friend Rudolf Roessler, who had emigrated from Nazi Germany to Switzerland to found the Vita Nova publishing house. Using the unpublished correspondence of Shor and Roessler, the presentation will highlight Shor’s role as author, translator, advisor, and sounding-board for Vita Nova.

Author

• Michael Wachtel, Princeton U