Editing Shmuel Yosef Agnon

{{Short description|Israeli writer and Nobel laureate}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Shmuel Yosef Agnon
| image            = File:פורטרט ש"י עגנון (cropped).jpg
| alt              = Agnon in his home in Jerusalem in 1966
| caption          = Agnon in 1966
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1887|8|08|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = Buczacz, [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Polish Galicia]], Austria-Hungary<br />(now [[Buchach]], Ukraine)
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1970|2|17|1887|7|17|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[Jerusalem]]
| resting_place    = [[Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery]]
| occupation       = Novelist, poet, short-story writer
| language         = [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
| nationality      = Israeli
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| period           = 
| genre            = [[Novels]]
| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = 
| spouse           = Esther Marx
| partner          = 
| children         = 
| relatives        = 
| awards           = {{Awd|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]|1966}}
| signature        = 
| signature_alt    = 
| module           = 
| portaldisp       = 
| native_name      = שמואל יוסף עגנון
| native_name_lang = he
}}
'''Shmuel Yosef Agnon''' ({{langx|he|שמואל יוסף עגנון}}; August 8, 1887<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laor |first=Dan |title=S.Y. Agnon: A Biography |publisher=Shocken |year=1998 |location=Tel Aviv and Jerusalem |language=Hebrew}}</ref> – February 17, 1970)<ref>Laor, Dan, ''Agnon's Life'', Tel Aviv, Schocken, 1998 [Hebrew]; Falk, Avner, "Agnon and Psychoanalysis," ''Iton'' 77, No. 156, pp. 28–39, 1993 [Hebrew]. Also see Arnold Band, "Shai Agnon by Dan Laor", ''AJS Review'', Vol. 35 (2011), pp. 206—208. Band says that Agnon invented the commonly cited date July 17, 1888 in the 1920s.</ref> was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of [[modern Hebrew]] literature.  In Hebrew, he is known by the pseudonym '''Shai Agnon''' ({{Script/Hebrew|ש"י עגנון}}). In English, his works are published under the name '''S. Y. Agnon'''.

Agnon was born in [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Polish Galicia]], then part of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], and later immigrated to [[Mandatory Palestine]], and died in [[Jerusalem]].

His works deal with the conflict between the traditional [[Jew]]ish life and language and the [[modern world]]. They also attempt to recapture the fading traditions of the European ''[[shtetl]]'' (village). In a wider context, he also contributed to broadening the characteristic conception of the [[narrator]]'s role in literature. Agnon had a distinctive linguistic style, mixing modern and rabbinic Hebrew.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Norwich|first=John Julius|title=Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Arts|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordillustrate00norw|url-access=limited|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0198691372|location=USA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordillustrate00norw/page/10 10]}}</ref> 

In 1966, he shared the [[1966 Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize in Literature]] with the poet [[Nelly Sachs]].

==Biography==
[[File:OldBuchachPanorama.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Buczacz, Agnon's hometown]]
Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes (later Agnon) was born in Buczacz (''Butschatsch'' in German), [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]], then within the Austro-Hungary and now [[Buchach]], [[Ukraine]]. Officially, his date of birth in the [[Hebrew calendar]] was 18 Av 5648 (July 26). However, he always said his birthday was on the [[ta'anit|fast day]] of [[Tisha B'Av]], the commemoration of many disasters in Jewish history.

His father, Shalom Mordechai Halevy, was ordained as a [[rabbi]] but worked in the [[fur trade]] and had many connections among the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidim]]. His mother's side had ties to the [[Misnagdim]], a parallel religious movement opposed to Hasidic Judaism.

Shmuel did not attend school; he was schooled by his parents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/bios/agnon.html |title=Agnon bio from ''Junior Judaica, Encyclopedia Judaica for Youth'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000915151746/http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/bios/agnon.html |archive-date=2000-09-15 |url-status=dead |via=The Pedagogic Center}}</ref> In addition to studying Jewish texts, Agnon studied writings of the [[Haskalah]], and was also tutored in [[Standard German]]. At the age of eight, he began to write in Hebrew and [[Yiddish]]. At the age of 15, he published his first poem – a Yiddish poem about the [[Kabbalah|Kabbalist]] [[Joseph della Reina]]. He continued to write poems and stories in Hebrew and Yiddish that were published in Galicia.

In 1908, he moved to [[Jaffa]] in [[History of Palestine#Ottoman period|Ottoman Palestine]]. The first story he published there was "[[Agunah|Agunot]]" ("Chained Wives"), which appeared that same year in the journal ''Ha`omer.'' He used the [[pen name]] "Agnon," derived from the title of the story, which he adopted as his official [[surname]] in 1924. In 1910, "Forsaken Wives" was translated into German. In 1912, at the urging of [[Yosef Haim Brenner]], he published a novella, "Vehaya Ha'akov Lemishor" ("The Crooked Shall Be Made Straight").

In 1913, Agnon moved to the [[German Empire]], where he met Esther Marx (1889-1973), the sister of [[Alexander Marx]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alexander Marx |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/marx-alexander |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=Jewish Virtual Library}}</ref> They married in 1920 and had two children. In Germany, he lived in Berlin and [[Bad Homburg vor der Höhe]] (1921–24). [[Salman Schocken]], a businessman and later also publisher, became his literary [[patron]] and freed him from financial worries.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1966-12-01 |title=Agnon's Quest |url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/baruch-hochman/agnons-quest/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Commentary Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> From 1931 on, his work was published by [[Schocken Books]], and his short stories appeared regularly in the newspaper ''[[Haaretz]]'', also owned by the Schocken family. He continued to write short stories in Germany and collaborated with [[Martin Buber]] on an anthology of Hasidic stories. Many of his early books appeared in Buber's ''Jüdischer Verlag'' (Berlin). The assimilated, secular German Jews, [[Buber]] and [[Franz Rosenzweig]] among them, considered Agnon a legitimate relic, religious man familiar with Jewish scripture. [[Gershom Scholem]] called him "the Jews' Jew".<ref>{{cite book|last=Weiss|first=Hillel|display-authors=et al|title=Agnon and Germany: The Presence of the German World in the Writings of S.Y. Agnon|year=2010|publisher=Bar Ilan University|page=8}}</ref>

In 1924, a fire broke out in his home, destroying his manuscripts and rare book collection. This traumatic event crops up occasionally in his stories. Later that year, Agnon returned to Palestine and settled with his family in the [[Jerusalem]] neighborhood of [[Talpiot]]. In 1929, his library was destroyed again during [[1929 Palestine riots|anti-Jewish riots]].<ref name="Beit Agnon">{{cite web|url=http://www.agnonhouse.org.il/en/About |title=Beit Agnon |publisher=Agnonhouse.org.il |access-date=September 1, 2011}}</ref>

Agnon's place in Hebrew literature was assured when his novel ''Hakhnasat Kalla'' ("The Bridal Canopy") appeared in 1931 to critical acclaim.<ref>{{cite journal| first=Harold| last=Fisch| title=The Dreaming Narrator in S. Y. Agnon| journal= Novel: A Forum on Fiction| volume= 4| issue=1| date=Autumn 1970| pages=49–68| doi=10.2307/1345251| publisher=Duke University Press| jstor=1345251}}</ref> In 1935, he published ''Sippur Pashut'' ("A Simple Story"), a [[novella]] set in Buchach at the end of the 19th century. Another novel, ''Tmol Shilshom'' ("Only Yesterday"), set in early 20th century Palestine, appeared in 1945.

Agnon was a strict [[vegetarianism|vegetarian]] in his personal life.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schwartz |first=Richard H. |year=2001 |title=Judaism and Vegetarianism |pages=171–172 |publisher=Lantern Books |isbn=9781930051249}}</ref>

During much of the 20th century, there was debate about whether Agnon or [[Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog]] was the actual author of the [[Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel]] in 1948. Herzog was generally considered the author until a 1983 article in ''[[Maariv (newspaper)|Ma'ariv]]'' by scholar David Tamar raised the possibility of Agnon's authorship. However, findings by scholar [[Yoel Rappel]] and corroborated by the [[National Library of Israel]] in 2018 confirmed Herzog's authorship but confirmed that Agnon had edited the work.<ref name="ToI">{{cite news |last1=Frydberg |first1=Tracy |title=Mystery of who wrote the 'Prayer for the State of Israel' is finally solved |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/mystery-over-who-wrote-the-prayer-for-the-state-of-israel-is-finally-solved/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=Times of Israel |date=2018-04-18}}</ref>

==Literary themes and influences==
[[File:חדר העבודה.JPG|thumb|upright|Agnon's study]]
Agnon's writing has been the subject of extensive [[Research|academic research]]. Many leading scholars of Hebrew literature have published books and papers on his work, among them [[Baruch Kurzweil]], [[Dov Sadan]], [[Nitza Ben-Dov]], [[Dan Miron]], [[Dan Laor]] and [[Alan Mintz]]. Agnon writes about Jewish life, but with his own unique perspective and special touch. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Agnon claimed "Some see in my books the influences of authors whose names, in my ignorance, I have not even heard, while others see the influences of poets whose names I have heard but whose writings I have not read." He went on to detail that his primary influences were the stories of the [[Bible]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/agnon-speech.html |title=Nobel Speech |publisher=Nobelprize.org |date=December 10, 1966 |access-date=September 1, 2011}}</ref> Agnon acknowledged that he was also influenced by German literature and culture, and European literature in general, which he read in German translation. A collection of essays on this subject, edited in part by [[Hillel Weiss]], with contributions from Israeli and German scholars, was published in 2010: [https://www.biupress.co.il/index.php?dir=site&page=catalog&op=item&cs=1403 ''Agnon and Germany: The Presence of the German World in the Writings of S.Y. Agnon''.] The budding [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] literature also influenced his works, notably that of his friend, [[Yosef Haim Brenner]]. In Germany, Agnon also spent time with the Hebraists [[Hayim Nahman Bialik]] and [[Ahad Ha'am]].

The communities he passed through in his life are reflected in his works:
* Galicia: in the books ''[[The Bridal Canopy]]'', ''A City and the Fullness Thereof'', ''A Simple Story'' and ''A Guest for the Night''.
* Germany: in the stories "Fernheim", "Thus Far" and "Between Two Cities".
* Jaffa: in the stories "Oath of Allegiance", "Tmol Shilshom" and "The Dune".
* Jerusalem: "Tehilla", "Tmol Shilshom", "Ido ve-Inam" and "Shira".

Nitza Ben-Dov writes about Agnon's use of allusiveness, free-association and imaginative dream-sequences, and discusses how seemingly inconsequential events and thoughts determine the lives of his characters.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XnPnQqebRoC&q=was+agnon+vegetarian |author=Nitza Ben-Dov |title=Agnon's art of indirection: Uncovering latent content in the fiction of S.Y Agnon |access-date=September 1, 2011|isbn=9004098631 |year=1993 |publisher=BRILL }}</ref>

Some of Agnon's works, such as ''The Bridal Canopy'', ''And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight'', and ''The Doctor's Divorce'', have been adapted for [[theatre]]. A play based on Agnon's letters to his wife, "Esterlein Yakirati", was performed at the [[Jerusalem Khan Theatre|Khan Theater]] in Jerusalem.

==Language==
Agnon's writing often used words and phrases that differed from what would become established modern Hebrew. His distinct language is based on traditional Jewish sources, such as the [[Torah]] and the [[Nevi'im|Prophets]], [[Midrash]]ic literature, the [[Mishnah]], and other [[Rabbinic literature]]. Some examples include:

* ''batei yadayim'' ({{lit|hand-houses}}) for modern ''kfafot'' (gloves).
* ''yatzta'' ({{Script/Hebrew|יצתה}}) rather than the modern conjugation ''yatz'a'' ({{Script/Hebrew|יצאה}}) ("she went out").
* ''rotev'' ({{Script/Hebrew|רוטב}}) meaning soup in place of modern ''marak'' ({{Script/Hebrew|מרק}}). In Modern Hebrew the term 'rotev' means 'sauce'.
* ''bet kahava'' for modern ''bet kafe'' (coffee house / café), based on transliteration of the word 'coffee' from Arabic, rather than the contemporary term common in Hebrew, which comes from European languages.

[[Bar-Ilan University]] has made a computerized [[concordance (publishing)|concordance]] of his works in order to study his language.

==Awards and critical acclaim==
[[File:Shmuel Yosef Agnon, 1924.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Agnon 1924]]
[[File:ירושלים - מר עגנון, חתן פרס אוסישקין לשנת תש"ו-JNF035646.jpeg|thumb|Agnon receiving the [[Menachem Ussishkin|Ussishkin]] Prize 1946]]
[[File:פרס נובל קרל לינדול.JPG|thumb|right|Agnon (left) receiving the Nobel Prize, 1966]]
Agnon was twice awarded the [[Bialik Prize]] for literature (1934<ref name=bi01>{{cite web| title = Biography of Shmuel Yosef Agnon| website = [[Answers.com]]| url = http://www.answers.com/topic/shmuel-yosef-agnon}}</ref> and 1950<ref name=bi01/><ref name=bialik>{{cite web|title=List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004 (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv Municipality website |url=http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Hebrew/_MultimediaServer/Documents/12516738.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217143811/http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Hebrew/_MultimediaServer/Documents/12516738.pdf |archive-date=2007-12-17 }} – which omits the award in 1934</ref>). He was also twice awarded the [[Israel Prize]], for literature (1954<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashyad |title=Israel Prize recipients in 1954 (in Hebrew) |publisher=Israel Prize Official Site |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307203211/http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashyad |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and 1958<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashyah |title=Israel Prize recipients in 1958 (in Hebrew) |publisher=Israel Prize Official Site |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208115723/http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashyah |archive-date=February 8, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>).

In 1966, he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people".<ref name="Literature1966">{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/index.html|title=Nobel Prize in Literature 1966|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]|access-date=October 17, 2008}}</ref> The prize was shared with German Jewish author [[Nelly Sachs]]. In his speech at the [[award ceremony]], Agnon introduced himself in Hebrew: "As a result of the historic catastrophe in which [[Titus]] of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem".<ref>Horst Frenz, ed. ''Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901–1967.'' Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1969. [http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1966/agnon-speech.html Nobel Prize acceptance speech]</ref> The award ceremony took place on a Saturday during the Jewish festival of [[Hanukkah]]. Agnon, who was religiously observant, postponed attendance at the awards ceremony until he had performed two Jewish ceremonies of his own on Saturday night, to end the Sabbath and to light the [[Menorah (Hanukkah)|menorah]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-09-15|title=S.Y. Agnon & the Orthodox Reader|url=https://jewishaction.com/books/reviews/s-y-agnon-orthodox-reader/|access-date=2021-05-03|website=Jewish Action|language=en}}</ref>

In later years, Agnon's fame was such that when he complained to the municipality that traffic noise near his home was disturbing his work, the city closed the street to cars and posted a sign that read: "No entry to all vehicles, writer at work!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Mintz|first=Alan|display-authors=et al|chapter=Introduction|title=A Book That Was Lost|page=29}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Denkmal Samuel Agnon Bad Homburg.jpg|thumb|right|Shmuel Yosef Agnon Memorial in [[Bad Homburg]], Germany]]
[[File:AgnonCover.jpg|thumb|First day cover for Ukrainian commemorative stamp]]
[[File:50 NIS Bill Obverse & Reverse.jpg|right|thumb|Agnon featured on the [[Israeli new shekel#Banknotes|fifty-shekel bill]], second series]] 
[[File:Buchach (25).jpg|thumb|right|Exposition in Bouchach museum]]
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Israel-50NewSheqalim-1998.jpg|Left|thumb|upright|50 [[New Israeli Shekel]] note commemorating Agnon {{Deletable image-caption|date=May 2012}}|{{FFDC|1=Israel-50NewSheqalim-1998.jpg|log=2009 June 10|date=May 2012}}]] -->
Agnon died in Jerusalem on February 17, 1970. His daughter, {{ill|Emuna Yaron|he|אמונה ירון}}, continued to publish his work [[posthumous work|posthumously]]. Agnon's archive was transferred by the family to the [[Jewish National and University Library|National Library in Jerusalem]]. His home in [[Talpiot]], built in 1931 in the [[Bauhaus]] style, was turned into a museum, ''Beit Agnon.''<ref>{{cite web|title=About section|url=http://www.agnonhouse.org.il/en/About|work=Agnon House Website}}</ref> The study where he wrote many of his works was preserved intact.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990951.html| title = A little modesty goes a long way| access-date = 2009-02-17| archive-date = 2008-06-09| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080609235918/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990951.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> Agnon's image, with a list of his works and his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, appeared on the [[Israeli new shekel#Banknotes|fifty-shekel bill]], second series, in circulation from 1985 to 2014. 

The main street in Jerusalem's [[Givat Oranim]] neighborhood is called Sderot Shai Agnon, and a synagogue in Talpiot, a few blocks from his home, is named after him. Agnon is also memorialized in Buchach (now in Ukraine). The Historical Museum in Buchach has an exhibit about him and a bust of the author is mounted on a pedestal in a plaza across the street from the house where he lived. The house itself is preserved and marked as the home where Agnon lived from birth till the age of (approximately) 19; the street that runs in front of the house is named "Agnon Street" (in Ukrainian).

Agnotherapy is a method developed in Israel to help elderly people express their feelings.<ref>{{cite news| url = http://www.haaretz.com/therapy-through-s-y-agnon-stories-helps-the-elderly-face-their-realities-1.228984| title = Therapy through S.Y. Agnon stories helps the elderly face their realities| newspaper = Haaretz}}</ref>

==Beit Agnon==
After Agnon's death, the former mayor of Jerusalem [[Mordechai Ish-Shalom]] initiated the opening of his home to the public. In the early 1980s, the kitchen and family dining room were turned into a lecture and conference hall, and literary and cultural evenings were held there. In 2005, the Agnon House Association in Jerusalem renovated the building, which reopened in January 2009. The house was designed by the German-Jewish architect Fritz Korenberg, who was also his neighbor.<ref name="Beit Agnon"/>

==Published works==

===Novels and novellas===
* ''[[The Bridal Canopy]]'' (1931), translated from ''Hakhnāsat kallāh''. An epic describing Galician Judaism at the start of the 19th century. The story of a poor but devout Galician Jew, Reb Yudel, who wanders the countryside with his companion, Nuta, during the early 19th century, in search of bridegrooms for his three daughters.
* ''[[In the Heart of the Seas]], a story of a journey to the land of Israel'' (1933), translated from ''Bi-levav yamim''. A short novel about a group of ten men who travel from Eastern Europe to Jerusalem.
* ''[[A Simple Story (Agnon novel)|A Simple Story]]'' (1935), translated from ''Sipur pashut''. A short novel about a young man, his search for a bride, and the lessons of marriage.
* ''[[A Guest for the Night]]'' (1938), translated from ''Ore'ah Noteh Lalun''. A novel about the decline of eastern European Jewry. The narrator visits his old hometown and discovers that great changes have occurred since World War I.
* ''Betrothed'' (1943), translated from ''Shevuat Emunim''. A short novel.
* ''[[Only Yesterday (novel)|Only Yesterday]]'' (1945), translated from ''[[:he:תמול_שלשום|Temol shilshom]]''. An epic novel set in the [[Second Aliyah]] period.  It follows the story of the narrator from Galicia to Jaffa to Jerusalem. Sometimes translated as ''Those Were The Days''.
* ''Edo and Enam'' (1950). A short novel.
* ''To This Day'' (1952), translated from ''ʿAd henah''. A tale of a young writer stranded in Berlin during World War I.
* ''[[Shira (book)|Shira]]'' (1971). A novel set in Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s. Manfred Herbst, a middle-aged professor suffering from boredom, spends his days prowling the streets searching for Shira, the beguiling nurse he met when his wife was giving birth to their third child. Against the background of 1930s Jerusalem, Herbst wages war against the encroachment of age.

===Short stories===
* ''Of Such and Of Such'', a collection of stories, including "And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight", "Forsaken Wives", and "Belevav Yamim" ("In the Heart of the Seas") from 1933.
* ''At the Handles of the Lock'' (1923), a collection of love stories, including "Bidmay Yameha" ("In the Prime of Her Life"), "A Simple Story", and "The Dune".
* ''Near and Apparent'', a collection of stories, including "The Two Sages Who Were In Our City", "Between Two Cities", "The Lady and the Peddler", the collection "The Book of Deeds", the satire "Chapters of the National Manual", and "Introduction to the Kaddish: After the Funerals of Those Murdered in the Land of Israel".
* ''Thus Far'', a collection of stories, including "Thus Far", "Prayer", "Oath of Allegiance", "The Garment", "Fernheim", and "Ido ve-Inam" (Edo and Enam).
* ''The Fire and the Wood'', a collection of stories including Hasidic tales, a semi-fictional account of Agnon's family history and other stories.
* ''[[Tale of the Goat]]''

===English translations===
* "Forever (Ad Olam)", Translated and commentary by Yehuda Salu, CreateSpace, 2014. 
* ''A Simple Story,'' revised edition, translated by Hillel Halkin, The Toby Press, 2014.
* ''Shira,'' revised edition of Agnon's final novel, The Toby Press, 2014
* ''Two Tales: Betrothed & Edo and Enam'', contains two short novellas.
* ''Twenty-One Stories'', a collection of translated stories from "The Book of Deeds" and elsewhere.
* ''Israeli Stories'', ed. Joel Blocker. Contains the stories "Tehilah" (1950) and "Forevermore" (1954).
* ''New Writing in Israel'', ed. Ezra Spicehandler and Curtis Arnson.  Contains the story "Wartime in Leipzig", an excerpt from "In Mr. Lublin's Store".
* ''A Dwelling Place of My People'', contains 16 short stories about the Hassidim of Poland, from the Hebrew volume "These and Those" (1932).
* ''Jaffa, belle of the seas: Selections from the works of S.Y. Agnon''
*''Tehilah'', Israel Argosy, trans. by Walter Lever, Jerusalem Post Press, Jerusalem, 1956

===Anthologies===
* ''Days of Awe'' (1938), a book of customs, interpretations, and legends for the Jewish days of mercy and forgiveness: [[Rosh Hashanah]], [[Yom Kippur]], and the days between.
* ''Present at Sinai: The Giving of the Law'' (1959), an anthology for the festival of [[Shavuot]].

===Posthumous publications===
* ''Ir Umeloah'' ("A City and the Fullness Thereof") (1973), a collection of stories and legends about Buczacz, Agnon's hometown.
* ''[[In Mr. Lublin's Store]]'' (1974), set in Germany of the First World War.
* ''Within the Wall'' (1975), a collection of four stories.
* ''From Myself to Myself'' (1976), a collection of essays and speeches.
* ''Introductions'' (1977), stories.
* ''Book, Writer and Story'' (1978), stories about writers and books from the Jewish sources.
* ''The Beams of Our House'' (1979), two stories, the first about a Jewish family in Galicia, the second about the history of Agnon's family.
* ''Esterlein Yakirati'' ("Dear Esther: Letters 1924–1931" (1983), letters from Agnon to his wife.
* ''A Shroud of Stories'' (1985).
* ''The Correspondence between S.Y. Agnon and S. Schocken'' (1991), letters between Agnon and his publisher.
* ''Agnon's Alef Bet Poems'' (1998), a children's guide to the Hebrew Alphabet.
* ''A Book That Was Lost: Thirty Five Stories'' (2008)

In 1977 the [[Hebrew University]] published ''Yiddish Works'', a collection of stories and poems that Agnon wrote in Yiddish during 1903–1906.

== See also ==

* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Arnold J. Band, ''Nostalgia and nightmare : a study in the fiction of S.Y. Agnon'', Berkeley and Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1968.
* [[Nitza Ben-Dov]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=0XnPnQqebRoC&dq=*+Nitza+Ben-Dov:+%27%27Agnon%27s+art+of+indirection:+Uncovering+latent+content+in+the+fiction+of+S.Y+Agnon%27%27&pg=PA2 Agnon's art of indirection: Uncovering latent content in the fiction of S.Y Agnon]'', Brill, (Leiden). 1993. {{ISBN|90-04-09863-1}}.
*[[Gershon Shaked]], ''Shmuel Yosef Agnon: A Revolutionary Traditionalist''. New York University Press, 1989.
* Anne Golomb Hoffman, ''Between Exile and Return: S.Y. Agnon and the Drama of Writing'', New York: SUNY, 1991. {{ISBN|0-7914-0541-9}}.
* [[Amos Oz]], ''[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6789.html The Silence of Heaven: Agnon's Fear of God]'', Princeton University Press, 2000.
* [[Roman Katsman]], ''Literature, History, Choice: The Principle of [[Alternative History]] in Literature (S.Y. Agnon, The City with All That is Therein).'' Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=POgXAQAAIAAJ&q=Hebrew+Writing+of+the+First+World+War|title=Hebrew Writing of the First World War|last=Abramson|first=Glenda|publisher=Valentine Mitchell|year=2008|isbn=9780853037712}}
* [[Yaniv Hagbi]], ''Language, Absence, Play: Judaism and Superstructuralism in the Poetics of S. Y. Agnon'', Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2009.
* [[Ilana Pardes]], ''Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture'', Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013.
* Ahuva Feldman, "Consciousness of time and mission in S. Y. Agnon's ''Shira''. ''Hebrew Studies'' 50 (2009) 339-381.
* Marc Bernstein, Midrash and marginality: The ''Agunot'' of S. Y. Agnon and Devorah Baron. ''Hebrew Studies'' 42:7-58.
* {{cite journal |last1=Ezrahi |first1=Sidra DeKoven |title=Sentient Dogs, Liberated Rams, and Talking Asses: Agnon's Biblical Zoo |journal=AJS Review |date=April 2004 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=105–136 |doi=10.1017/S0364009404000078|s2cid=163052331 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000915151746/http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/bios/agnon.html Biography of Shmuel Yosef Agnon] (Jewish Agency for Israel)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101227154510/http://www.webyeshiva.org/class.php?cid=441 Archive of Midrash Agnon course on 5 short stories from Agnon House and WebYeshiva.org].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111003230744/http://www.webyeshiva.org/class.php?cid=498 Archive of course on Agnon's novella "Tehilla" broadcast from Agnon House and WebYeshiva.org].
* Shiri Lev Ari: [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/735141.html S.Y. Agnon's relatives: The East Jerusalem Nashashibis] (Ha'aretz, July 10, 2006)
* Dan Laor: [http://www.haaretz.com/news/who-by-fire-who-by-earthquake-1.271175 Agnon's biographer describes his long journey home]
*[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/agnon.html Biography]
* Jewish Renaissance Pioneers: [https://web.archive.org/web/20110405041309/http://renaissance.jewishagency.org/2011/02/10/shmuel-yosef-agnon-1887-1970/ Shmuel Yosef Agnon]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/agnon-speech.html Agnon's Nobel Prize Speech]
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [https://www.zivashamir.com/english-cv Ziva Shamir], [https://www.zivashamir.com/post/the-portrait-of-agnon-s-stage-adapter-as-a-literary-interpreter The portrait of Agnon's stage adapter as a literary interpreter (Lecture)]

{{Israeli Nobel laureates}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1966 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnon, Shmuel Yosef}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
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[[Category:20th-century Israeli novelists]]
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[[Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the Ottoman Empire]]
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[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
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[[Category:People from Buchach]]
[[Category:Writers from Ternopil Oblast]]
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[[Category:Israel Prize in literature recipients]]
[[Category:Israeli male short story writers]]
[[Category:Israeli novelists]]
[[Category:Israeli Orthodox Jews]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
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[[Category:Short story writers from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Bialik Prize recipients]]