Isidore Gordon Gottschalk Ascher (1835 – September 19, 1914) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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novelist and poet. He was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in 1835, the eldest son of Isaac Gottschalk Ascher and brother to Jacob Ascher. His family moved to Canada in 1841, and Isidore received his education at

Montreal High School The High School of Montreal was an English-language high school founded in 1843, serving Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the area eventually known as the Golden Square Mile. It was less formally known as Montreal High School and from 1853 to 1870 was ...

then attended

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, where he graduated in law. He was called to the bar in 1862, but returned to England in 1864 and became a novelist and poet. In 1872, Ascher married Lilly, eldest daughter of Samuel Newman. He died in London on September 19, 1914.Personal letter from Lily Gordon-Ascher to S. M. Ellis, dated 21 September 1914
in the
Montague Summers Papers
'
Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University Library
Isidore was one of the founders of the Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society when it was established in 1863 in Montreal. This society later became the Baron de Hirsch Institute and Benevolent Society. One of his early works, ''Voices From The Hearth'', was published in Montreal in 1863, prior to his move to England, and received some praise:

Though not without occasional defects, which seem more the result of carelessness than of inability to do better, this volume reveals a subtle and delicate imagination, earnest and tender aspirations after the beautiful and the true, and, in several pieces, a rich musical harmony, which is full of promise of higher achievement in future, should Mr. Ascher continue to work the vein he has so auspiciously opened.

His novel ''An Odd Man's Story'' is the tale story of a man who was duped by a rascal of a brother aided by a weak wife. There is no special reason for the tale, though it opens in a manner which seems to promise something a little out of the common.

Works

Fiction

*''An Odd Man's Story''. London: Elliott Stock, London, 1889. British Library, Historical Print Editions, 2010. *''The Doom Of Destiny''. London: Diprose & Bateman, 1895. *''A Social Upheaval''. London: Greening & Co., 1898.

Drama

*''Circumstances Alter Cases''. London, New York: Samuel French, 1888.Search results: Isidore Ascher, Open Library, Web, 15 May 2011.

Poetry

*''Voices From The Hearth''. Montreal/New York: John Lovell, D. Appleton, 1863. *''One Hundred And Five Sonnets''. Poetry, 1912 *''Collected Poems''. Epworth P, 1929.

References

External links

* Review of ''Voices from the Hearth: a collection of verses'', by Gerald Massey, reproduced in the book ''Gerald Massey "Chartist, Poet, Radical and Thinker"- A Biography'' by David Sha

* ''By the firelight'

* Four poems by Asche

* ''My bridge'

* ''Sleep and death'

* ''Richard Cobden. In memoriam''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ascher, Isidore Gordon 19th-century Scottish male writers 19th-century British writers 19th-century Canadian novelists 19th-century Scottish novelists 19th-century Canadian poets 19th-century Scottish poets Canadian male poets Province of Canada people Jewish Canadian writers Jewish poets 1835 births 1914 deaths Canadian male novelists Canadian people of German-Jewish descent High School of Montreal alumni British emigrants to pre-Confederation Canada Jewish Scottish writers Scottish male novelists Scottish people of German-Jewish descent Writers from Glasgow Poets from Montreal McGill University Faculty of Law alumni Hebrew Benevolent Society Novelists from Montreal