All I Could Never Be
Anzia Yezierska

Fanya, a young Polish Jew, living and working on the Lower East Side, attends a lecture by a famous educator, Henry Scott, that seems meant specifically for her.  Scott calls America “the meeting ground of all the nations of the world” and exhorts Americans to “blaze a trail to a future where people would be judged not by membership in a group... but as individuals on their own merits.”  
On an impulse, Fanya goes to Scott’s university office and boldly asks him to read the autobiography she has written. After a highly charged exchange, the rational, older, American professor is won over by the young, passionate, Jewish immigrant. She is his fascination; he is her “symbol of all she could never be.”

This moving portrait of a vibrant and talented immigrant woman is based on the author’s true relationship with John Dewey, the important and famous educator who was her most significant influence. It depicts the workings of American society during the 1930s, especially between the privileged class and immigrants who were striving for a better life. It is an early and optimistic story of Jewish assimilation, and grapples with issues still faced by immigrants today.

Anzia Yezierska emigrated from Russian Poland to the United States in 1890. She lived on the Lower East Side and worked her way up through menial jobs and hard-won education to success as a writer about “her people.” Her books are widely read, including the classic novel Bread Givers, How I Found America: Collected Stories, and Red Ribbon on a White Horse: My Story.

Paperback / $16.95 (Can $21.95) / ISBN 978-0-89255-456-2 / 240 pages / Fiction