2004 is the centennial year of the master storyteller Isaac Bashevis Singer, who in 1978 became the seventh American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In July, Singer joins the Library of America series in a three-volume edition of his collected stories and a fully illustrated companion Album—a first for the award- winning nonprofit publisher dedicated to preserving America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. This major publishing event is the centerpiece of the Isaac Bashevis Singer Centennial celebration. The Centennial is a multifaceted program of public readings, panels, exhibitions, and workshops exploring Singer and the immigrant literary experience, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and produced with cultural institutions nationwide from February 2004 to January 2005.

"Singer is the emblematic example of an ethnic American writer who found a wide, mainstream audience, transforming himself and American literature in the process," says Max Rudin, Library of America publisher and Centennial director. "The Library of America is delighted, and honored, to gather for the first time the brilliant stories that speak so powerfully to the fears and longings of our modern nation of immigrants. We hope the books and the Centennial celebrations will introduce new generations of readers to the work of this self-described 'entertainer of the spirit.'"