(2) In his view Jews were intelligent and likable victims of local and international hostility, constantly adjusting to survive. Morris's experience and his use of stereotypes of the Jewish body, sexuality, intelligence, and the vagaries of national origins echo James Joyce. Jews provide vital material evoking the tensions of small-town antisemitism, ethnic neighborhoods, leftwing idealism, rise of fascism, refugees, humanities darkest side, the Holocaust, survivors, McCarthy's red-baiting, and the State of Israel. Jews play an overlooked role in thirteen of his nineteen novels, two short story collections, four works of literary criticism, five books of photographs, and his three-volume memoir. His Omaha childhood, college experience, and 1933 Viennese sojourn captured his imagination and conscience, especially as incidents in his early life highlighted the changing status of the Jews from outsiders to endangered. He died in 1998, in Mill Valley, California, his home for the last 36 years. Wright Morris was born in 1910 in Central City, Nebraska, where he lived for his first nine years. Although much has been written about Morris, this essay provides the first recognition of the Jewish motif in his work. Morris acknowledges a deep reading influence of Jewish writers including Isaac Babel, Ettore Svevo, and Marcel Proust.
The Jewish aspect of Morris's production lies in the characters, plots, and world events generated by Jewish issues including his 1933 residence in Vienna, fascism, the Holocaust, and antiMcCarthyism. Despite the relatively short contact, the Midwest was a formative influence as rural and small-town Nebraska and ethnic diversity in Omaha frequently provided material for many of the essays, novels, and photographs produced from 1942 to 1985. Wright Morris was born in Nebraska in 1910 and left the state by 1925.
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