Bernard Malamud

He first met Ann De Chiara in 1942, an Italian-American Roman Catholic, and a Cornell University graduate. The two tied the knot three years later on November 6, 1945.

Chiara proved to be his constant companion and support. She reviewed most of his writings and typed the manuscripts for him. The couple was blessed with two children, Paul and Janna.

He breathed his last on March 18, 1986 in Manhattan. He was aged 71 at the time of death.

Bernard Malamud was born to Russian Jewish immigrants Bertha and Max Malamud in Brooklyn, New York. He was eldest of the two sons born to the couple. His parents were not highly educated and owned a grocery store to make ends meet.

Unlike his parents, young Malamud had an affinity for books since early on. He loved to read books as they provided him an insight into the world unknown to him otherwise.

He attained his formal education from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. During his years at school, he watched numerous movies and theatres and started penning stories.

Completing his high school degree, he took up a job as a teacher-in-training for a year. Thereafter he enrolled at the City College of New York, graduating from the same in 1936. Four years later, he completed his Master’s degree from Columbia University, writing a thesis on Thomas Hardy.

He took up a job at the Bureau of the Census in Washington DC, later teaching English at the high school night classes for adults in New York.

In 1948, his passion for writing paved way for his first ever written novel. However, not fully confident about the end-result, he burned the manuscript.

In 1949, he took up the role of an instructor, at the Oregon State University, since the post of a teacher required a PhD degree. He served in this capacity until 1961.

While at the Oregon State University, he devoted three out of the seven days of the week focussing on writing technique. He soon developed a style of his own and started working on his first novel.

In 1952, he came up with his debut novel, ‘The Natural’. The story of the novel revolved around Roy Hobbs, a fictional baseball player who achieved iconic status due to his skilful play. He employed a recurring writing technique in the book, which have been a dominant feature in all his subsequent write-ups.

His magnum opus work, ‘The Fixer’ portrays a fictionalized version of the Beilis case, wherein a Jew is wrongly charged of the murder of a Christian child. The book gained instant limelight and went on to win the National Book Award for Fiction and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.