Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

, Joseph Heller,

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer (; 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Poland, Polish-born Jews, Jewish novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist, and translator in the United States. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and publish ...

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

novel, '' The Natural'', was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel '' The Fixer'' (also filmed), about

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, won both the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

and the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

Biography

Bernard Malamud was born on April 26, 1914, in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, the son of Bertha (née Fidelman) and Max Malamud, Russian Jewish immigrants who owned and operated a succession of grocery stores in the Williamsburg, Borough Park and Flatbush sections of the borough, culminating in the 1924 opening of a German-style

delicatessen A delicatessen or deli is a grocery that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany (contemporary spelling: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th centur ...

(specializing in "cheap canned goods, bread, vegetables, some cheese and cooked meats") at 1111 McDonald Avenue on the western fringe of Flatbush. (Then known as Gravesend Avenue, the thoroughfare received its current moniker in 1934, while the surrounding community—abutting the elevated BMT Culver Line and characterized as a "very poor" subsection of the neighborhood in a contemporaneous demographic survey of

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

students—is now considered to be part of the

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

section.) A brother, Eugene, born in 1917, suffered from mental illness, lived a hard and lonely life and died in his fifties. Bertha Malamud was "emotionally unstable" and attempted suicide by swallowing disinfectant in 1927; although her elder son discovered her in time, she died in a mental hospital two years later. Malamud entered adolescence at the start of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, graduating from central Flatbush's storied Erasmus Hall High School in 1932. During his youth, he saw many films and enjoyed relating their plots to his school friends. He was especially fond of

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

's comedies. He received his BA degree from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1936. Thereafter, Malamud worked for a year at $4.50 a day () as a student teacher; however, he twice failed an examination that would enable him to become a permanent substitute teacher in the New York City public school system. Momentarily funded by a government loan, he completed the coursework for a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in English at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1937-38; although he felt it was "close to a waste of time", he eventually received the degree after submitting a thesis on

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

in 1942. From 1939-40, he was a temporary substitute teacher at Lafayette High School in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. He was excused from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

-era military service because he was the sole support of his father, who had remarried to Liza Merov in 1932. While working in a temporary capacity for the

Bureau of the Census The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

in Washington D.C., he contributed sketches to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', marking some of his first published works. Returning to New York after the job ended, he taught English at Erasmus Hall (in its adult-oriented evening session) for nine years while focusing on writing during the day. Toward the end of this period, he also worked at the similarly oriented Chelsea Vocational High School (where he taught in the day program to supplement his income) and

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

Evening High School. Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

, an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novel '' A New Life''. Because he lacked a PhD, he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years, his rank was that of instructor; nevertheless, he was promoted to

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in 1954 and became a tenured associate professor in 1958. While at OSU, Malamud devoted three days out of every week to his writing, and gradually emerged as a major American author. In 1961, he left OSU to teach creative writing at Bennington College, a position he held until retirement. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1967. In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 – March 20, 2007), an Italian American

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and a 1939

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

graduate. Despite the opposition of their parents (prompting their relocation from Brooklyn to

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

), they married on November 6, 1945. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. They had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and

Janna Janna (Kannada : ಮಹಾಕವಿ ಜನ್ನ) was one of the well-known Kannada poets of the early 13th century who also served in the capacity of a minister and a builder of temples. He graced the court of Hoysala empire King Veera Ba ...

(b. 1952). Janna is the author of a memoir about her father, titled ''My Father Is A Book''. Malamud was Jewish, an agnostic, and a

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

. He died in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

(where he had maintained a winter residence at the Upper West Side's Lincoln Towers since 1972) on March 18, 1986, at the age of 71. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. In his writing, Malamud depicts an honest picture of the despair and difficulties of the immigrants to America, and their hope of reaching their dreams despite their poverty.

Writing career

Malamud wrote slowly and carefully; he is the author of eight novels and four collections of short stories. The posthumously published ''Complete Stories'' contains 55 short stories and is 629 pages long. Maxim Lieber served as his literary agent in 1942 and 1945. He completed his first novel, ''The Light Sleeper'', in 1948, but later burned the manuscript. His first published novel was '' The Natural'' (1952), which has become one of his best remembered and most symbolic works. The story traces the life of Roy Hobbs, an unknown middle-aged baseball player who achieves legendary status with his stellar talent. This novel was made into a 1984 movie starring Robert Redford. Malamud's second novel, '' The Assistant'' (1957), set in New York and drawing on Malamud's own childhood, is an account of the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling financially, Bober takes in a drifter of dubious character. This novel was quickly followed by '' The Magic Barrel,'' his first published collection of short stories (1958). It won Malamud the first of two National Book Awards that he received in his lifetime. In 1967, his novel '' The Fixer'', about

in the

, became one of the few books to receive the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His other novels include '' Dubin's Lives'', a powerful evocation of middle age (largely inspired by Malamud's own extramarital affairs) that employs biography to recreate the narrative richness of its protagonists' lives, and '' The Tenants'', perhaps a meta-narrative on Malamud's own writing and creative struggles, which, set in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, deals with racial issues and the emergence of black/ African American literature in the American 1970s landscape. Malamud was renowned for his short stories, often oblique allegories set in a dreamlike urban ghetto of immigrant

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s. Of Malamud, Flannery O'Connor wrote: "I have discovered a short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself." He published his first stories in 1943, "Benefit Performance" in ''Threshold'' and "The Place Is Different Now" in ''American Preface''. Shortly after joining the faculty of Oregon State University, his stories began appearing in ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', '' Partisan Review'', and '' Commentary''.

Themes

Writing in the second half of the twentieth century, Malamud was well aware of the social problems of his day: rootlessness, infidelity, abuse, divorce, and more. But he also depicted love as redemptive and sacrifice as uplifting. In his writings, success often depends on cooperation between antagonists. For example, in " The Mourners" landlord and tenant learn from each other's anguish. In "The Magic Barrel", the matchmaker worries about his "fallen" daughter, while the daughter and the rabbinic student are drawn together by their need for love and salvation.

Posthumous tributes

Philip Roth: "A man of stern morality", Malamud was driven by "the need to consider long and seriously every last demand of an overtaxed, overtaxing

conscience A conscience is a Cognition, cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's ethics, moral philosophy or value system. Conscience is not an elicited emotion or thought produced by associations based on i ...

torturously exacerbated by the pathos of human need unabated".

, also quoting

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

: "Well, we were here, first-generation Americans, our language was English and a language is a spiritual mansion from which no one can evict us. Malamud in his novels and stories discovered a sort of communicative genius in the impoverished, harsh jargon of immigrant New York. He was a myth maker, a fabulist, a writer of exquisite parables. The English novelist Anthony Burgess said of him that he 'never forgets that he is an American Jew, and he is at his best when posing the situation of a Jew in urban American society.' 'A remarkably consistent writer,' he goes on, 'who has never produced a mediocre novel .... He is devoid of either conventional piety or sentimentality ... always profoundly convincing.' Let me add on my own behalf that the accent of hard-won and individual emotional truth is always heard in Malamud's words. He is a rich original of the first rank." aul Bellow's eulogy to Malamud, 1986

Centenary

There were numerous tributes and celebrations marking the

centenary A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

of Malamud's birth (April 26, 1914). To commemorate the centenary, Malamud's current publisher (who still keeps most of Malamud's work in print) published on-line (through their blog) some of the "Introductions" to these works.

announced that they would be celebrating the 100th birthday "of one of its most-recognized faculty members" (Malamud taught there from 1949 to 1961). Media outlets also joined in the celebration. Throughout March, April, and May 2014 there were many Malamud stories and articles on blogs, in newspapers (both print and on-line), and on the radio. Many of these outlets featured reviews of Malamud's novels and stories, editions of which have recently been issued by the

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ...

. There were also many tributes and appreciations from fellow writers and surviving family members. Some of the more prominent of these kinds of tributes included those from Malamud's daughter, from Malamud's biographer Philip Davis, and from fellow novelist and short story writer

Cynthia Ozick Cynthia Ozick (born April 17, 1928) is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. Biography Cynthia Ozick was born in New York City. The second of two children, Ozick was raised in the Bronx by her parents, Celia (née Regelson) and ...

. Other prominent writers who gathered for readings and tributes included Tobias Wolff, Edward P. Jones, and

Lorrie Moore Lorrie Moore (born Marie Lorena Moore; January 13, 1957) is an American writer, critic, and essayist. She is best known for her short stories, some of which have won major awards. Since 1984, she has also taught creative writing. Biography Mar ...

Awards

*1958

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

, winner for '' The Assistant'' *1959 National Book Award for Fiction, winner for '' The Magic Barrel''"National Book Awards – 1959"
.

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: ...

. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
(With essays by Liz Rosenberg and Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) *1967 National Book Award for Fiction, winner for '' The Fixer''"National Book Awards – 1967"
.

. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
(With essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) *1967 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, winner for '' The Fixer''"Fiction"
. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-30. *1969 O. Henry Award, winner for "Man in the Drawer" in ''The Atlantic Monthly'', April 1968 *1984

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of ...

, runner-up for ''The Stories'' PEN/Malamud Award Given annually since 1988 to honor Malamud's memory, the PEN/Malamud Award recognizes excellence in the art of the short story. The award is funded in part by Malamud's $10,000 bequest to the PEN American Center. The fund continues to grow thanks to the generosity of many members of PEN and other friends, and with the proceeds from annual readings. Past winners of the award include

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

(1988),

(1989),

Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short-story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerou ...

(1992),

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...

(1996),

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro ( ; ; 10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024) was a Canadian short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles. Munro's ...

(1997),

Sherman Alexie Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up ...

(2001),

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

(2002), and Tobias Wolff (2006).

Bibliography

Novels

* '' The Natural'' (1952) * '' The Assistant'' (1957) * '' A New Life'' (1961) * '' The Fixer'' (1966) * '' Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition'' (1969) * '' The Tenants'' (1971) * '' Dubin's Lives'' (1979) * '' God's Grace'' (1982)

Story collections

* '' The Magic Barrel'' (1958) * '' Idiots First'' (1963) * '' Rembrandt's Hat'' (1974) * ''The Stories of Bernard Malamud'' (1983) * ''The People and Uncollected Stories'' (includes the unfinished novel ''The People'') (1989) * ''The Complete Stories'' (1997)

Short stories

* "The First Seven Years" (1958) * " The Mourners" (1955) * " The Jewbird" (1963) * "The Prison" (1950) * "A Summer's Reading" * "Armistice"

Books about Malamud

*Smith, Janna Malamud. ''My Father Is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud''. (2006) *Davis, Philip. ''Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life''. (2007) *Swirski, Peter. "You'll Never Make a Monkey Out of Me or Altruism, Proverbial Wisdom, and Bernard Malamud's ''God's Grace''". ''American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History''. New York, Routledge 2011.

References

Sources

* ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2004. * Contemporary Literary Criticism * ''Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 28: Twentieth Century American-Jewish Fiction Writers.'' A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Daniel Walden, Pennsylvania State University. The Gale Group. 1984. pp. 166–175. * Smith, Janna Malamud. ''My Father Is a Book''. Houghton-Mifflin Company. New York: New York. 2006 * Mark Athitakis,
The Otherworldly Malamud
, Humanities, March/April 2014 , Volume 35, Number 2

External links

*

at

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Malamud, Bernard 1914 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American novelists American agnostics American humanists Bennington College faculty Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni Erasmus Hall High School alumni Jewish agnostics Jewish American novelists National Book Award winners O. Henry Award winners Oregon State University faculty Writers from Brooklyn American postmodern writers Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners American male novelists Jewish American short story writers American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York City Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jews from New York (state)