The Melting-pot

Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was an English-born humourist and writer. He dedicated his life to championing the cause of the oppressed. He wrote a very influential novel Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People (1892). The use of the metaphorical phrase melting pot to describe American absorption of immigrants was popularised by Zangwill's play The Melting-Pot, a hit in the United States in 1908-1909. He also wrote mystery works, such as The Big Bow Mystery (1892) and social satire such as The King of Schnorrers (1894). He was also involved in politics as an assimilationist, an early Zionist, a territorialist, a feminist and a pacifist. His other works include: Without Prejudice (1896), The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes (1903), Merely Mary Ann (1903) and The Forcing House (1922).