Bernard Malamud facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bernard Malamud
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| Born | April 26, 1914 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Died | March 18, 1986 (aged 71) Manhattan, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Author, teacher |
| Nationality | American |
| 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 (born April 26, 1914 – died March 18, 1986) was a famous American writer. He wrote many novels and short stories. He was one of the best-known American Jewish authors of the 20th century.
His baseball novel, The Natural, was made into a movie in 1984. It starred Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer also became a movie. This book was about unfair treatment of Jewish people in the Russian Empire. It won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Contents
Bernard Malamud's Life Story
Bernard Malamud was born in 1914 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Bertha and Max Malamud, were immigrants from Russia. His younger brother, Eugene, had a difficult life.
Bernard grew up during the Great Depression, a time when many people had little money. From 1928 to 1932, he went to Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. He loved watching movies and telling his friends the plots. He especially liked Charlie Chaplin's funny films.
After high school, Bernard worked as a teacher-in-training. He then went to college with a government loan. He earned his first degree from City College of New York in 1936. In 1942, he got a master's degree from Columbia University. He wrote about the writer Thomas Hardy. He did not serve in World War II because he was the only one supporting his father.
Bernard first worked for the government in Washington, D.C.. Then he taught English in New York, mostly to adults in night classes.
Teaching and Writing
In 1949, Malamud started teaching at Oregon State University. He taught writing classes there. He didn't have a PhD, so he couldn't teach literature at first. While at the university, he spent three days each week writing. He slowly became a well-known American author.
In 1961, he left Oregon State to teach writing at Bennington College. He stayed there until he retired. In 1967, he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Family Life
In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara. She was Italian-American and a Catholic. They got married on November 6, 1945, even though their parents didn't approve. Ann helped him a lot by typing his stories and checking his writing.
Bernard and Ann had two children, Paul (born 1947) and Janna (born 1952). Janna later wrote a book about her father called My Father Is A Book.
Bernard Malamud was Jewish. He was also an agnostic and a humanist. This means he believed in human values and didn't claim to know if God existed.
Malamud passed away in Manhattan on March 18, 1986, when he was 71 years old. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In his books, Malamud showed the struggles and hopes of immigrants in America. He wrote about their dreams, even when they were poor.
Bernard Malamud's Books
Malamud wrote slowly and carefully. He wasn't a very fast writer. He wrote eight novels and four collections of short stories. His Complete Stories, published after he died, has 55 short stories.
He finished his first novel, The Light Sleeper, in 1948. But he later burned the manuscript because he wasn't happy with it.
Famous Novels
His first published novel was The Natural (1952). This book is one of his most famous works. It tells the story of Roy Hobbs, a baseball player who becomes a legend because of his amazing talent. This novel was made into a movie in 1984.
Malamud's second novel was The Assistant (1957). It is set in New York and is based on Malamud's own childhood. The story is about Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Even though he is struggling financially, Morris helps a stranger who comes into his life.
Soon after, he published The Magic Barrel (1958). This was his first collection of short stories. It won Malamud his first National Book Award.
In 1967, his novel The Fixer won both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This book is about unfair treatment of Jewish people in the Russian Empire.
Another novel, The Tenants, is set in New York City. It explores issues of race and the rise of black literature in the 1970s.
Short Stories
Malamud was very well known for his short stories. They were often like dreamlike stories set in city neighborhoods where immigrants lived. The writer Flannery O'Connor once said that Malamud was better than any other short-story writer, including herself!
He published his first stories in 1943. In the early 1950s, his stories started appearing in popular magazines like Harper's Bazaar and The New Yorker.
Main Ideas in Malamud's Writing
Malamud's stories often show the sadness and difficulties people face. But he also wrote about how love can make things better. He showed how making sacrifices can be uplifting. In his stories, success often comes when people who are against each other learn to work together.
For example, in his story "The Mourners", a landlord and a tenant learn from each other's pain. In "The Magic Barrel", a matchmaker worries about his daughter. But his daughter and a student find love and hope together.
Remembering Bernard Malamud
Many famous writers have praised Bernard Malamud.
Philip Roth said Malamud was "a man of strong morals." He was driven by "the need to think deeply about every demand of a very demanding conscience."
Saul Bellow said that Malamud "discovered a special way of communicating" through the language of immigrants in New York. He called Malamud "a myth maker, a storyteller, a writer of beautiful parables." The English writer Anthony Burgess said Malamud "never forgets that he is an American Jew." He added that Malamud "has never produced a mediocre novel."
100th Birthday Celebrations
There were many tributes and celebrations for Malamud's 100th birthday on April 26, 2014. His publisher shared some introductions to his books online. Oregon State University, where he taught, also celebrated his birthday.
Many news outlets, like blogs, newspapers, and radio stations, shared stories about Malamud. They reviewed his novels and stories. Many writers and his family members shared their appreciation for him. His daughter, Janna Malamud Smith, and other famous writers like Cynthia Ozick, Tobias Wolff, Edward P. Jones, and Lorrie Moore gave tributes and readings.
Awards and Honors
Bernard Malamud won many awards for his writing:
- 1958 National Jewish Book Award for The Assistant
- 1959 National Book Award for Fiction for The Magic Barrel
- 1967 National Book Award for Fiction for The Fixer
- 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Fixer
- 1969 O. Henry Award for "Man in the Drawer"
- 1984 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, runner-up for The Stories
PEN/Malamud Award
The PEN/Malamud Award is given every year since 1988. It honors Malamud's memory and celebrates great short story writing. Malamud left money in his will to help fund this award. Many other people have also donated to it.
Some past winners of this award include John Updike (1988), Saul Bellow (1989), Eudora Welty (1992), Joyce Carol Oates (1996), Alice Munro (1997), Sherman Alexie (2001), Ursula K. Le Guin (2002), and Tobias Wolff (2006).
Images for kids
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A signed copy of Malamud's book The Natural held by Oregon State University.
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
See also
In Spanish: Bernard Malamud para niños
