The Settlers & The Harvest - 2 SIGNED First editions, by Meyer Levin
1.THE SETTLERS - [signed]
NY: Simon And Schuster, 1972. First Edition. Hardcover; First Printing.
832 pages; 23 cm;
8vo - 8" to 9" tall; Summary: Set in Palestine from the turn of the
century to the Balfour Declaration, this novel revolves around a large
Russian immigrant family facing a new life in a barren land. Subjects:
American fiction -- 20th century. Palestine -- Fiction. ; Signed by
Author.
NY: Simon And Schuster, 1978. First Edition. Hardcover; First Printing.
Summary: The
Harvest is the great, definitive novel of the creation of the Jewish
state and the triumphant efforts of the Jewish people to survive and
become a nation. Subjects: Jews -- Fiction. Israel -- Fiction. ; Signed
by Author.
Summary:
Acclaimed as the Jewish War and Peace, The Settlers, along with its
sequel The Harvest, marks the crowning achievement of the author Norman
Mailer hailed as "one of the best American writers working in the
realistic tradition." At the turn of the twentieth century, Feigel and
Yankel Chaimovitch are among the many Russian Jews caught up in the
nascent revolution. Worried that their two oldest children, Reuven and
Leah, could be rounded up into a pogrom, Feigel and Yankel allow them
to scout out if their ancient homeland, Eretz Yisroel, is the refuge
they're searching for. Soon, Leah and Reuven write with promising news:
all is good, and Eretz Yisroel is a land of unparalleled beauty. Buoyed
by the good reports, the Chaimovitch family flees Russia to begin anew.
Yet not everything is as easy as Leah's reports had made it sound. The
pioneers face innumerable hardships: poverty, disease, grueling physical
labor, and tensions with their Arab neighbors that often erupt into
violence. Even within their own ranks there are frequent conflicts,
especially between new arrivals and established settlers. And as World
War I escalates, each family member -- from second-oldest son Gidon,
struggling through the disastrous Gallipoi campaign, to Leah, awaiting
the return of her fickle Moshe -- struggles to build a life and a
future. Drawing on personal experience and decades of research, Meyer
Levin blends true-life figures and events into an epic that is at once a
riveting historical document and a superb literary achievement.
