Global InformationSalom Rizk information
Salom Risk | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 December 1908 near Ain Arab, Mount Hermon, Syria, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 22 October 1973 Silver Spring, Maryland |
| Pen name | Sam Risk, Solomon Rizk |
| Occupation | Author, lecturer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Syrian, American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Genre | autobiography |
| Subject | immigrant life, assimilation |
| Notable works | Syrian Yankee |
Salom Rizk (also known as Sam Risk; born 15 December 1908 in Ottoman Syria, died 22 October 1973 in Silver Spring, Maryland) was a Syrian-American author, best known for his 1943 immigrant autobiography, Syrian Yankee, perhaps the best-known piece of Arab American literature in the middle part of the century.[1] The book has been called "a classic of the immigrant biography genre",[2] especially for the way Rizk's story portrays the American Dream[3] and the virtues of cultural assimilation[4] at the expense of his home country, which he finds loathsome when he returns for a visit.[5] Rizk became well known enough that Reader's Digest sponsored him on a lecture tour around the United States as "the quintessential American immigrant".[6] He also sponsored a drive for the Save the Children Federation, using advertisements in such magazines as Boys' Life to request families send their extra pencils, so that these could be donated to needy school-children around the world as a way of promoting freedom and democracy and fighting tyranny.[7]
- ^ Waïl S. Hassan, Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab American and Arab British Literature. Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. 100-111.
- ^ Tanyss Ludescher, "From Nostalgia to Critique: An Overview of Arab American Literature", MELUS 31.4 (2006): 93-114.
- ^ Sacvan Bercovitch, Cyrus Patell, The Cambridge History of American Literature: Prose Writing, 1910-1950, Cambridge University Press, 2002. p.522.
- ^ Elmaz Abinader, "Children of al-Mahjar: Arab American Literature Spans a Century" Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, 2000; accessed 17 July 2010
- ^ Pauline Kaldas, Khaled Mattawa, "Introduction", Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction, University of Arkansas Press, 2009. pp.xvi, xviii.
- ^ Gregory Orfalea, The Arab Americans: A History, Interlink Books, 2006. pp.50, 60, 69.
- ^ e.g.,"Pencils Speak Democracy", in Boys' Life Dec 1953, p.67. (accessed via Google Book search, 17 July 2010)