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Isaac Rosenberg




Isaac Rosenberg ( November 25 , 1890 - April 1 , 1918 ) was a Jewish - English Poet of the First World War who was one of the greatest of all British War Poet s. His "'''Poems from the Trenches'''" are recognised as some of the most outstanding written during the First World War.

Some sources spell his name Rosenburg.


BIOGRAPHY

Isaac was born in Bristol and moved to 47 Cable Street in 1897, a poor district of the East End Of London with a strong Jewish community. He attended St. Paul's School around the corner in Wellclose Square, until his family (of Russian descent) moved to Stepney in 1900. He left school when was fourteen, where he became an apprentice engraver.

Suffering from poor health, Rosenburg emigrated to the warmer climate of South Africa to try and cure himself.

He was interested in both Poetry and Art , and managed to find the finances to attend the Slade School . At his time at Slade School, Rosenberg notably studied alongside David Bomberg , Mark Gertler , Stanley Spencer , Paul Nash , Edward Wadsworth and Dora Carrington . He was taken up by Laurence Binyon and Edward Marsh , and began to write poetry seriously, but he suffered from ill-health.
Nevertheless, he enlisted in October 1915 and was sent to the Somme on The Western Front in France where he was killed on April 1 , 1918 . His body was never recovered.
He was enlisted into The Bantams, a special battalion for men too short to be accepted into other regiments.
Rosenberg's works are often drawn upon by historians as, unlike more famous War-poets , he was not only Jewish but a Private .


WORKS


His paintings hang in the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain .

A commemorative blue plaque to him hangs in The Whitechapel Library.


REFERENCES


  • Beating for Light: The Story of Isaac Rosenberg

  • Geoff Akers, 2006



  • National Book League Date of Publication 1975

  • "Word and Image VI. Isaac Rosenberg 1890-1918"


  • Jean Liddiard 1975

  • "Isaac Rosenburg; the Half Used Life"


  • J. Cohen 1975

  • "Journey to the Trenches: The Life of Isaac Rosenberg 1890-1918"


  • Deborah Maccoby 1999 Symposium Press; ISBN 1900814153

  • "God Made Blind: The Life and Work of Isaac Rosenberg"


  • Edited by Adrian Barlow 1995 Cambridge University Press; ISBN 052148569X

  • "Six Poets of the Great War: Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Richard Aldington, Edmund Blunden, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke and Many Others."


  • Naxos AudioBooks; ISBN 9626341092

  • "Poets of the Great War: Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Richard Aldington, Edmund Blunden, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Many Others."


  • Harold Finch, Stepney Books ISBN 0902385259

  • "The Tower Hamlets Connection - a Biographical Guide"