Scienceיעקב שבתאי

Yaakov Shabtai

Yaakov Shabtai was an Israeli novelist, playwright, songwriter and translator, known for the novel Past Continuous (Zikhron Devarim).

1934 to 1981The novel Past ContinuousPlays staged at HabimaHebrew songs and translations

Born: 8 March 1934, Tel Aviv
Died: 4 August 1981, Tel Aviv
Occupation: linguist, translator, playwright, songwriter

Yaakov Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv

Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv and grew up in a workers' housing project there. His parents were working class immigrants from Poland. As a youth he belonged to the Hashomer Hatzair movement, and his brother Aharon Shabtai is a poet and translator.

After serving in the Nahal, he moved to Kibbutz Merhavia, where he farmed and wrote songs. He later returned to Tel Aviv and devoted himself to writing books and plays.

His novel Zikhron Devarim appeared in 1977 and was published in English in 1985 as Past Continuous. It is written as a single paragraph with no chapters. His plays Crowned Head and The Spotted Tiger were staged at Habima, and he translated plays by Harold Pinter, Neil Simon and Eugene O'Neill into Hebrew.

He also wrote many songs and the screenplay for the 1974 film Big Eyes with Uri Zohar. Shabtai died of a heart attack on August 4, 1981, and was buried in Holon. His novel Past Perfect (Sof Davar) was published after his death.