Shub, Elizabeth

Editor and translator Elizabeth “Libby” Shub was born in Vilno, Poland, the daughter of Samuel and Bessie Charney. In 1919, her family moved to the United States, where they settled in New York and her father, writing as Shmuel Niger, worked as a literary critic for the Yiddish newspaper The Day . Because her parents ran a literary salon in their home, Shub was exposed to Yiddish literature and writers from an early age. She met author Isaac Bashevis Singer when her father invited him to dinner at their house soon after Singer’s arrival in the United States in 1935, and they developed a lasting friendship.

In 1965, after her marriage to Boris Shub ended in divorce, Elizabeth Shub began working as a reader in the children’s department at Harper & Row Publishers and soon became an associate editor there. She later worked at Charles Scribner’s Sons (1966-68) and Macmillan Publishing Company (1968-75), also as an associate editor of children’s books. She became senior editor at Greenwillow Books in 1975 and retired from that position in 1996.

It was Shub who suggested to Singer that he write a children’s book. He agreed to write one if she would translate it from Yiddish to English; the result was Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (1966), which won a Newbery Honor Book award, as did another collaboration, When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories (1968). Although she is known primarily as a translator of Singer’s stories for children, Shub also translated some of his short stories for adults, as well as his novels The Estate (1970) and Enemies: A Love Story (1972). In addition to works by Singer, Shub translated other folk tales and children’s stories. Her translations of Theodor Fontane’s Sir Ribbeck of Ribbeck of Havelland and About Wise Men and Simpletons: Twelve Tales from Grimm won American Library Association Notable Book awards in 1969 and 1971. Shub also wrote several original books for children, including The White Stallion (1982). She died in New York City on June 18, 2004, at the age of 89.