Israel Zangwill

Biography

Born within earshot of London’s East-End bustle on 14 February 1864, Israel Zangwill grew into a literary chameleon—novelist, playwright, and social lightning-rod. Page-turners such as the 1916 silent film Merely Mary Ann and its 1920 remake carried his name across the Atlantic, while posthumously The Verdict (1946) re-anchored him in cinema history. Off the page, he shared life and ideas with Edith Ayrton, the journalist who became his wife. On 1 August 1926 the Sussex town of Midhurst became his final resting place, closing the book on a man who had spent six decades rewriting the world in words.