Bernard Malamud
by Maxine
Today, April 26 is the birthday of novelist and short story writer, Bernard Malamud who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1914. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants who owned a grocery store, he was still able to graduate from college in the middle of the Depression. In 1940,
Malamud got a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. After checking drainage ditch statistics, he wrote stories on company time.
During World War II, he was horrified to learn about the Nazi death camps and although not formerly an observant Jew, began to study Jewish history and traditions. These themes became paramount in his work. He also was a great fan of baseball as evident in his highly successful novel about the rise and fall of baseball player, Roy Hobbs in The Natural.
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