Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side

the long version

"Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Yiddish writer, and the New York photographer Bruce Davidson collaborated on a film project in 1972. This funny and surreal feature entitled "Isaac Singer's Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko's Beard" is both a documentary about Singer's life in New York and a dramatization of his short story, "The Beard." During and after production, Davidson made portraits of Singer and also returned to the Lower East Side to document its residents. Among the photographs, made between 1957 and 1990, is the series "The Garden Cafeteria" (1973) which depicts the denizens of the restaurant frequented by Singer near the offices of The Jewish Daily Forward. Davidson's lens reveals Singer's literary world of Holocaust survivors and emigres from Eastern Europe - a displaced culture in its twilight." "The volume includes 45 photographs, critical essays about their artistic backgrounds and collaboration, an interview with Davidson, Singer's unpublished introduction to "The Garden Cafeteria" and his short story "The Beard.""--BOOK JACKET.