Hyman Kaplan, or H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N as he habitually signs himself, is a fictional character in a series of well-received, humorous stories by Leo Rosten, under the pseudonym "Leonard Q. Ross", which were originally published in The New Yorker in the 1930s and later collected into two books, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N.[1] In 1976, Rosten rewrote the two books as one, with many changes, as O K*A*P*L*A*N! My K*A*P*L*A*N!; opinions differ about whether the revisions are improvements. Rosten noted that he was frequently asked if Mr Kaplan was his alter ego, and that he often felt it was the other way around.
In 1968, the books were made into a musical play, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N.[2]
Mr Kaplan is an immigrant and a pupil at a New York night class in English. He is extremely diligent and enthusiastic, but seems completely incapable of learning: the teacher, Mr Parkhill, is eventually driven to conclude that, although Mr Kaplan admits that English has rules - "good rules, sensible rules" - he is quite unable to admit that the rules apply to him. (In The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, Kaplan's English pronunciation has improved substantially between semesters.)
Mr Kaplan is extroverted and highly assertive, particularly when his moral sense has been outraged by some perceived injustice in class or in American history, and he frequently gets into noisy disagreements with other members of the class.
Mr Kaplan usually signs his name in colored crayon with green stars between red letters outlined in blue.[3] In the last story of all, "Mr K*A*P*L*A*N the Eumoirous", he signs a note to his teacher simply "Hyman Kaplan", but addresses it to "Mr P*A*R*K*H*I*L*L". Mr Parkhill wonders if he will ever again be so honored.
Mr Kaplan was born in Kiev, has lived in America for fifteen years, and claims (on Columbus Day) that his birthday is 12 October. From his pronunciation of English (the characters' various idioms are a major source of the stories' humor), it appears that Mr Kaplan's native language is Yiddish. This would seem to be confirmed when Kaplan calls flowers "bloomers", and a fellow student reminds him not to mix up two languages, leading the teacher to reflect that Mr. Kaplan's native language refers to flowers as blumen.
Mr Parkhill is the point-of-view character in the stories, a staid, kind-hearted, mild-mannered teacher with a tendency to think of his pupils in terms of classical literature. Mr Parkhill is rigorously fair-minded, often to his own detriment when faced with Mr Kaplan's very individual brand of logic. He is also a lonely and rather tragic character: when the class present him with a new briefcase with the initials "M.P." on it as a birthday present, he is at first puzzled since his first name does not begin with M; then realizes that the letters stand for "Mr Parkhill" and that he cannot remember the last time anyone addressed him by his first name.