Bernard Malamud | |
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| Born | (1914-04-26)April 26, 1914 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | March 18, 1986(1986-03-18) (aged 71) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, teacher |
| Education | City College of New York (BA) Columbia University (MA) |
| Period | 1940–1985 |
| Genre | Novel,short story |
| Notable works | The Natural,The Fixer |
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along withSaul Bellow,Joseph Heller,Isaac Bashevis Singer,Norman Mailer andPhilip Roth, he was one of the best knownAmerican Jewish authors of the 20th century. Hisbaseball novelThe Natural was adapted intoa 1984 film starringRobert Redford. His 1966 novelThe Fixer (alsofilmed), aboutantisemitism in theRussian Empire, won both theNational Book Award[1] and thePulitzer Prize.[2]
Bernard Malamud was born on April 26, 1914, inBrooklyn, New York, the son of Bertha (née Fidelman) and Max Malamud,Russian Jewish immigrants who owned and operated a succession of grocery stores in theWilliamsburg,Borough Park andFlatbush sections of the borough, culminating in the 1924 opening of a German-styledelicatessen (specializing in "cheap canned goods, bread, vegetables, some cheese and cooked meats")[3] at 1111McDonald Avenue on the western fringe of Flatbush. (Then known asGravesend Avenue, the thoroughfare received its current moniker in 1934, while the surrounding community—abutting the elevatedBMT Culver Line and characterized as a "very poor" subsection of the neighborhood in a contemporaneous demographic survey ofBrooklyn College students[4]—is now considered to be part of theKensington section.) A brother, Eugene, born in 1917, suffered from mental illness,[5] 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.[6]
Malamud entered adolescence at the start of theGreat Depression, graduating from central Flatbush's storiedErasmus Hall High School in 1932.[7] During his youth, he saw many films and enjoyed relating their plots to his school friends. He was especially fond ofCharlie Chaplin's comedies. He received hisBA degree from theCity College of New York in 1936. Thereafter, Malamud worked for a year at $4.50 a day (equivalent to $102 in 2024) as a student teacher; however, he twice failed an examination that would enable him to become a permanentsubstitute teacher in the New York City public school system. Momentarily funded by a government loan, he completed the coursework for amaster's degree in English atColumbia University in 1937-38; although he felt it was "close to a waste of time", he eventually received the degree after submitting a thesis onThomas Hardy in 1942. From 1939-40, he was a temporary substitute teacher atLafayette High School in theBath Beach section of Brooklyn. He was excused fromWorld War II-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 theBureau of the Census inWashington D.C., he contributed sketches toThe Washington Post, 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 orientedChelsea Vocational High School (where he taught in the day program to supplement his income) andHarlem Evening High School.[8]
Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester atOregon State University, an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novelA New Life. Because he lacked aPhD, he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years, his rank was that of instructor; nevertheless, he was promoted toassistant professor in 1954 and became a tenuredassociate 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 atBennington College, a position he held until retirement. He was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1967.
In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 – March 20, 2007), an Italian AmericanRoman Catholic, and a 1939Cornell University graduate. Despite the opposition of their parents (prompting their relocation from Brooklyn toGreenwich Village), they married on November 6, 1945. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. They had two children, Paul (b. 1947) andJanna (b. 1952). Janna is the author of a memoir about her father, titledMy Father Is A Book.[9]
Malamud was Jewish, anagnostic, and ahumanist.[10] He died inManhattan (where he had maintained a winter residence at theUpper West Side'sLincoln Towers since 1972) on March 18, 1986, at the age of 71.[11] He is buried inMount Auburn Cemetery inCambridge, Massachusetts. 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.
Malamud wrote slowly and carefully; he is the author of eight novels[12] and four collections of short stories. The posthumously publishedComplete 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 wasThe 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 byThe 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.[13]
In 1967, his novelThe Fixer, aboutantisemitism in theRussian Empire, became one of the few books to receive theNational Book Award for Fiction and thePulitzer Prize for Fiction.[1][2] His other novels includeDubin'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, andThe Tenants, perhaps a meta-narrative on Malamud's own writing and creative struggles, which, set inNew York City, 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 urbanghetto of immigrantJews. 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" inThreshold and "The Place Is Different Now" inAmerican Preface. Shortly after joining the faculty of Oregon State University, his stories began appearing inHarper's Bazaar,The New Yorker,Partisan Review, andCommentary.
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.[14]
Philip Roth: "A man of stern morality", Malamud was driven by "the need to consider long and seriously every last demand of an overtaxed, overtaxingconscience torturously exacerbated by the pathos of human need unabated".[15]
Saul Bellow, also quotingAnthony Burgess: "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."[Saul Bellow's eulogy to Malamud, 1986]
There were numerous tributes and celebrations marking thecentenary of Malamud's birth (April 26, 1914).[17][18] 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.[19]Oregon State University announced that they would be celebrating the 100th birthday "of one of its most-recognized faculty members" (Malamud taught there from 1949 to 1961).[20]
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 theLibrary of America.[21] 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,[22] and from fellow novelist and short story writerCynthia Ozick.[23] Other prominent writers who gathered for readings and tributes includedTobias Wolff,Edward P. Jones, andLorrie Moore.[24]
Given annually since 1988 to honor Malamud's memory, thePEN/Malamud Award recognizes excellence in the art of the short story. The award is funded in part by Malamud's $10,000 bequest to thePEN 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 includeJohn Updike (1988),Saul Bellow (1989),Eudora Welty (1992),Joyce Carol Oates (1996),Alice Munro (1997),Sherman Alexie (2001),Ursula K. Le Guin (2002), andTobias Wolff (2006).
An agnostic humanist, Malamud has unflinching faith in man's ability to choose and make 'his own world' from the 'usable past'.
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