Isaac Bashevis Singer was born on July 14,1904, in the Polish shtetl, or village, of Leoncin, near Warsaw. His parents were devout Jews who wanted their son to become a religious scholar. Singer's interests, however, drew him toward literature, and early in his life he began reading secular, or non-religious, books. His strict religious training often conflicted with his secular interests, and this conflict is explored in his fiction through characters who grapple with faith and skepticism. In 1908 Singer and his family moved to Warsaw, where he spent most of his youth. In 1921, his father made him enroll in the city's rabbinical seminary. Singer remained only one year, and in 1923 he began proofreading for Literarishe Bletter, a Yiddish literary magazine. Later he worked as a translator, writing Yiddish versions of popular novels, including Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.

In 1927 Singer published his first...