Konrad Bercovici - Biography

Konrad Bercovici (1882–1961) was a Jewish-American writer.

Biography

Born in Romania into a Jewish family in 1882, he went to university in Paris, where he met his wife. Together, they moved to the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City. He worked in sweatshops and gave piano lessons. He went on to write works of biography, travel and fiction. He also wrote articles for Harper's.

Naturalist American writer Theodore Dreiser had copies of his work in his library.

Bibliography

• Crimes of Charity (1917)
• Dust of New York (1919)
• Murdo (1923)
• Around The World In New York (1924)
• Iliana: Stories of a wandering race (1924)
• The Marriage Guest (1925)
• On New Shores (1925)
• The Volga Boatman (1926)
• Alexander: A Romantic Biography (1928)
• The Story of the Gypsies (1928)
• Nights Abroad (1928)
• The Crusades (1929)
• Between Earth And Sky (1929)
• That Royal Lover (1931)
• Against the Sky (1932)
• A Romany Chai
• The Macedonian Gypsy
• It's the Gypsy in Me (1941) – Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• The Exodus (1947)
• Savage Prodigal (1948)

Bercovici v. Chaplin

The Charlie Chaplin hit The Great Dictator (1940) was the subject of a plagiarism lawsuit (Bercovici v. Chaplin) in 1947 against Chaplin. The case was settled, with Chaplin paying Konrad Bercovici $95,000. In his autobiography, Chaplin insisted that he had been the sole writer of the movie's script. He came to a settlement, though, because of his "unpopularity in the States at that moment and being under such court pressure, [he] was terrified, not knowing what to expect next."

External links

• Pictures
• Sample articles for Harper's
• It's the Gypsy in Me – downloadable .pdf version of his autobiography (1941)
• Library of Congress Authorities Citation