Israel Zangwill (1864 - 1926) was a British humorist and writer. Zangwill's work earned him the nickname "the Dickens of the Ghetto." He wrote a very influential novel Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People (). The use of the metaphorical phrase "melting pot" to describe American absorption of immigrants was popularised by Zangwill's play The Melting Pot, a hit in the United States in -. The play received its most recent production at New York's Metropolitan Playhouse in March. In this book: The Melting-Pot, Children of the Ghetto, Ghetto Tragedies