Join the MJCC for our Annual Author Series. During 2020, we will be hosting at least one author per month virtually.
Cosella Wayne: Or, Will and Destiny, Jonathan D. Sarna
Monday, December 7, 5:30 pm
Cost: $5
https://www.oregonjcc.org/arts-culture/upcoming-events/author-series
Published serially in the spiritualist journal Banner of Light in 1860, Cosella Wayne: Or, Will and Destiny is the first coming-of-age novel, written and published in English by an American Jewish woman, to depict Jews in the United States and transforms what we know about the history of early American Jewish literature. The novel never appeared in book form, went unmentioned in Jewish newspapers of the day, and studies of nineteenth-century American Jewish literature ignore it completely. Jonathan Sarna, who introduces the volume, discovered Cosella Wayne while pursuing research at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem. This edition is supplemented with selections from Cora Wilburn’s recently rediscovered diary, which are reprinted in the appendix. Together, these materials help to situate Cosella Wayne within the life and times of one of nineteenth-century American Jewry’s least known and yet most prolific female authors.
Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and directs its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He is also the chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History. He is author or editor of more than thirty books on American Jewish history and life including American Judaism: A History.