Шломо Кало: Жизнь и творчество писателя и микробиолога

Bulgarian Israeli writer and microbiologist

Shlomo Kalo (; February 25, 1928 – August 30, 2014) was a writer and microbiologist. He published approximately 80 fiction and nonfiction books in Hebrew, some of which are published in translation internationally.

In the 1960s two other works of his were published by "Am Oved" and won great appreciation. In 1969 he established a publishing house named "DAAT Publications", from which he retired after a few years, though he continued to publish most of his following titles there. During the 1970s he translated into Hebrew classical writings of Far Eastern schools such as: Patanjeli's Yoga verses, The Bhagavadgita, Budha's Dhamapada, Tao Te Ching and others. During these years and later in the 1980s Kalo published several nonfiction titles dealing with philosophical, moral and spiritual topics (two out of his seven volumes of lectures were published in this decade). Some other titles were literary fiction about a philosophical issue ("The Self as Fighter", "The Gospel of the Absolute Free Will" and the novel "Like the Scarlet Thread"). A lot of his music and songs were written in this period. During the following two decades Kalo continued to write prolifically in a variety of genres and styles. In the 1990s his first titles written in a newly introduced genre (the so called "documented" stories) were published: "Forevermore" and "Moments of Truth", as well as his best selling historical novel title "The Chosen", printed in first edition. During these two decades translation rights of some of his books were sold over in 17 countries. Short stories written by Shlomo Kalo were published in literary magazines in Israel, among them literary supplements of large newspapers. Some of his stories were included in various anthologies celebrating Israel's Jubilee year and other occasions. Prof. Gershon Shaked (Hebrew University) maintains in his Modern Fiction study (Indiana University, 2000; p 102 3) that Kalo's book "The Heap" marked 'two turning points in Hebrew Literary History; the beginning of modernist fiction in Israel, and the advent of Sephardi and Ashkenazi authors who wrote about the immigrant Sephardic community'. "The Heap," prof. Shaked continues, "has a special place in the history of Hebrew fiction because it is a neo modernist social protest of an immigrant author". The novel is built around a number of immigrants who, reflecting their existential crisis, 'embody the archetype of human failure'. Some 40 out of Kalo's 80 titles were published during the years 2000–2011.

1988 was the year when the extensive media exposure of Shlomo Kalo's contemplative and spiritual lifework began. Since that time, messages and solutions to a variety of issues have been both aired by national TV and radio channels, and widely covered by the press. During the Kosovo Crisis in 1999 Shlomo Kalo was the most prominent Israeli intellectual who publicly protested against US and NATO military attacks on Yugoslavia.