Sholem Asch, also written Shalom Ash, was a Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language who settled in the United States. A prolific and widely translated writer, Asch wrote about Jewish life in Eastern Europe and America, producing novels, short stories, and plays that reached international audiences. Asch initially wrote in Hebrew, but, on the advice of the Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz, he subsequently decided to write only in Yiddish, becoming a significant cultural figure in the Yiddishist movement. No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction best seller list for 1 week, from the issue of December 18, 1939. Wiki link