1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zangwill, Israel

ZANGWILL, ISRAEL (1864–  ), Jewish man of letters, was born in London on the 14th of February 1864. His early childhood was spent in Plymouth and at Bristol, where he received his first schooling. He was in his ninth year when his parents settled in Spitalfields, and he entered the Jews' Free School, where eventually he became a teacher. Concurrently with his teaching work he took his degree with honours at London University. He had already written a fantastic tale entitled The Premier and the Painter in collaboration with Louis Cowen, when he resigned his position as a teacher owing to differences with the school managers and ventured into journalism. He founded and edited Ariel, The London Puck, and did much miscellaneous work on the London press. He made his literary reputation with a novel, The Children of the Ghetto (1892), which was followed by Ghetto Tragedies (1893); The Master (1895); Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898); The Mantle of Elijah (1901); and other tales and novels of great interest dealing with Jewish life. Children of the Ghetto was produced in a play in New York with success in 1899, and has since been extensively played both in English and Yiddish. Others of his plays are: Merely Mary Ann, played at the Duke of York's theatre, and The Serio-Comic Governess, Nurse Marjorie; and The Melting Pot, all produced in New York. Mr Zangwill was the founder of the International Jewish Territorial Organization (see Zionism).