Author. Best remembered for his novels and short stories about man's struggle to overcome obstacles in life's path with an aching, suffering reality. Born in Brooklyn, New York of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, he graduated with a BA from the City College of New York in 1936, and with a MA from Columbia University in 1942. He taught high school in New York City from 1940 to 1949, then taught at Oregon State University from 1949 to 1961, and last at Bennington College, Vermont, from 1961 to 1986. His first novel, "The Natural" (1952), was a fable about a baseball player born gifted with a natural baseball playing talent. It was made into a movie staring Robert Redford, which then popularized him with the American public as an author. His books were often more sad, displaying life's pathos, than happy, yet were marked by faithfulness to the setting of the book. His next book, "The Assistant" (1957) was about a young Gentile hoodlum and an old Jewish grocer. Considered his best work, "The Fixer" (1966) takes place in Tsarist Russia, and is the story of a Jewish handyman unjustly imprisoned for the murder of a Christian boy. The work won him a Pulitzer Prize. Many critics believe his genius for story telling is most evident in his short stories, mostly told in a sparse, compressed style that reflects the terse speech of his immigrant parents. They include "The Magic Barrel" (1958), "Idiots First" (1963), and Rembrandt's Hat (1973). A compendium of his short stories, "The Stories of Bernard Malamud" appeared in 1983. He also wrote "Reflections of a Writer," sort of a memoir of his life, which was published in 1988, after his death.
Author. Best remembered for his novels and short stories about man's struggle to overcome obstacles in life's path with an aching, suffering reality. Born in Brooklyn, New York of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, he graduated with a BA from the City College of New York in 1936, and with a MA from Columbia University in 1942. He taught high school in New York City from 1940 to 1949, then taught at Oregon State University from 1949 to 1961, and last at Bennington College, Vermont, from 1961 to 1986. His first novel, "The Natural" (1952), was a fable about a baseball player born gifted with a natural baseball playing talent. It was made into a movie staring Robert Redford, which then popularized him with the American public as an author. His books were often more sad, displaying life's pathos, than happy, yet were marked by faithfulness to the setting of the book. His next book, "The Assistant" (1957) was about a young Gentile hoodlum and an old Jewish grocer. Considered his best work, "The Fixer" (1966) takes place in Tsarist Russia, and is the story of a Jewish handyman unjustly imprisoned for the murder of a Christian boy. The work won him a Pulitzer Prize. Many critics believe his genius for story telling is most evident in his short stories, mostly told in a sparse, compressed style that reflects the terse speech of his immigrant parents. They include "The Magic Barrel" (1958), "Idiots First" (1963), and Rembrandt's Hat (1973). A compendium of his short stories, "The Stories of Bernard Malamud" appeared in 1983. He also wrote "Reflections of a Writer," sort of a memoir of his life, which was published in 1988, after his death.
Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson
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