Lore Segal was an author and Holocaust survivor whose 2007 novel, “Shakespeare’s Kitchen,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
- Died: October 7, 2024 (Who else died on October 7?)
- Details of death: Died in New York City at the age of 96.
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Lore Segal’s legacy
Born Lore Vailer Groszmann to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria in 1928, Segal found herself facing the start of one of history’s greatest crimes before she was even a teenager. With Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938, her family fled to England to escape the coming persecution. There, she studied at the Bedford College for Women at the University of London before relocating to the United States in 1951 after three years in the Dominican Republic awaiting a permit allowing entry. By then, she was already filling a notebook with what would become her first novel.
In 1964, the fruits of those early labors entered the world via “Other People’s Houses.” Her debut, which told stories about Jewish refugees inspired by her own experiences, won acclaim and set the stage for decades of writing to come. Segal was not a speedy writer – her second novel, “Lucinella,” did not come until 1976, and her third, “Her First American,” came nine years after that – but each book won her accolades, the latter winning an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award.
There was a 22-year gap between Segal’s third and fourth novels, but the fourth proved to be a landmark. “Shakespeare’s Kitchen,” published in 2007, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction and, like her other books, garnered widespread acclaim. It was followed in 2013 by “Half the Kingdom.” And, in addition to her notable career as novelist, Segal penned over a dozen short stories and eight children’s books.
When not writing, she taught at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Princeton, Sarah Lawrence, and other universities, retiring in 1996.
Segal’s work earned her a shelf full of awards and recognitions, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Carl Sandburg Award for Fiction, an O. Henry Awards Prize, and many others.
On drawing from her life in her writing:
“Whenever something happens, good or bad, you feel like you’ve just found some gold. You can use this.” — interview with the Paris Review, 2019
Tributes to Lore Segal
Full obituary: The New York Times
