Abstract

Wright Morris was born in Nebraska in 1910 and left the state by 1925. 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. 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 anti- McCarthyism. Morris acknowledges a deep reading influence of Jewish writers including Isaac Babel, Ettore Svevo, and Marcel Proust. Morris died in 1998. Although much has been written about Morris, this essay provides the first recognition of the Jewish motif in his work.

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