The Modern Novel

Biography

Bernard Malamud was born in 1914 in Brooklyn. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who ran a small grocery store which stayed open long hours. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from City University, New York and a Master’s from Columbia (in English literature). He taught high school in New York before taking up a teaching assignment at Oregon State University. It was here where he wrote his early novels. In 1961, he moved to Bennington College in Vermont, where he taught for the rest of his career. Though his first novel – The Natural – was about baseball, his remaining novels had Jewish subjects, often telling the story of a simple man trying to make the world a better place but not necessarily succeeding. He died in 1986.

Books about Bernard Malamud

Other links

Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud
The Unofficial Bernard Malamud Home Page
Reflections Of A Writer: Long Work, Short Life (memoir by Malamud)
Pictures of Malamud (tribute by Philip Roth)
Bring back Bernard Malamud
Interview
Interview
Obituary