Thoughts an I B Singer's career

Read just a few more Isaac Bashevis Singer stories in the Library of America edition of his early stories - the rest I have in other single-volume collections - and also finished reading the excellent biographical notes at the end of the edition and was struck by a few elements in his life: I'm still astonished at his incredible output, not only of stories and novels but many reviews and essays, collaboration with other artists on plays and films, translations, and numerous volumes of children's books, including what's translated as The Fools of Chelm (not sure if he created this village or if it was legendary - I seem to remember an older book called The Wise Men of Chelm). He also was associated with a number of American universities in his later years, but not clear how much teaching he actually did - often the famous writers were just names on the masthead, so to speak. Learned that he broke the "translation" barrier at The New Yorker, in I think 1967 - the first work they published in translation - obviously a major step for the magazine as it became attuned to world literature and not just American writing - and has evolved into a force that brings numerous world writers to the notice of a vast American readership. I was surprised at how many adaptations there have been of Singer stories, including plays (Gimpel), opera (The Mirror - seemingly a two-person one act opera?), even ballet, hard as that is to imagine. The ghostly and spiritualistic elements that drive almost every one of Singer's early stories are obviously well suited, maybe even better suited, to stage and screen, where spirits and ghosts are familiar presences. The most famous story adaptation is of course Yentl (from Yentl the Yeshiva Boy), and was interested to see that Singer hated the movie and wrote a piece about that. What did he expect when he sold the rights to Streisand? He should have expected only one thing - that he would make a lot of $, which he did. If he wanted an art film he should have sold it to Woody Allen or to Scorcese ("You talkin' to me, God?"). IBS obviously had a life of great struggle - moving to America at age 31, death of revered older brother, writing from the margins in a nearly extinct language, estranged relationship with son and with others in his family - and from all that a tremendously rich literary output and deserved international renown.