Nationality American Name Curt Leviant | Role Professor | |
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Occupation Author, Translator, Professor Notable works The Yemenite GirlThe Man Who Thought He Was Messiah Books Diary of an adulterous woman, The Yemenite Girl, The man who thought h, Partita in Venice, A novel of Klass | ||
Curt Leviant (born 1932, Vienna) is a retired Jewish Studies professor, as well as a novelist and translator.
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He came to the United States in 1938. His 1957 master's thesis was on Lamed Shapiro. His 1966 doctoral thesis was a translation with commentary, published in 1969 as King Artur: A Hebrew Authurian Romance of 1279.
Leviant was also a book reviewer, usually of Jewish authors, with reviews appearing in The New York Times, The Nation, and other publications, especially Jewish media. In more recent years, he has been, co-authoring with his wife, a Jewish travel writer.
According to Lewis Fried, "his fiction is nuanced, surprising, and often arabesque, dealing with the demands of the present and the claims of the past."
Personal life and career
His parents were Jacques and Fenia Leviant. They spoke Yiddish at home, and encouraged their son's interest in Yiddish literature and theater. He married Erika Leah Pfeifer, they had three daughters, Dalya, Dvora, Shulamit.
His degrees are a BA from CUNY (Brooklyn), an MA from Columbia, and a PhD from Rutgers, where he taught Hebraic studies from 1960.
Novels
Shorter fiction
Translations
Leviant has translated from Hebrew and Yiddish to English, including: