Leonard Michaels
| Leonard Michaels | |
|---|---|
 Leonard Michaels | |
| Born |
January 2, 1933 New York City, United States |
| Died |
May 10, 2003 (aged 70) California, United States |
| Occupation | Essayist, screenwriter, novelist |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Genre | Fiction, non-fiction |
Leonard Michaels (January 2, 1933 – May 10, 2003) was an American writer of short stories, novels, and essays. He was born in New York City to Jewish parents; his father was born in Poland. He went to college and earned his BA from New York University and went on to acquire an MA as well as a PhD in English Literature from the University of Michigan, before spending most of his adult life in Berkeley, California.[1]
Going Places, his first book of short stories, made his reputation as one of the most brilliant of that era's fiction writers; the stories are urbane, funny, and written in a private, hectic diction that gives them a remarkable edge. The follow-up, coming six years later, was I Would Have Saved Them If I Could, a collection considered by some as strong as the first.[1]
The Men's Club, Michaels' first novel, is a story-like, relatively short comedic work that simultaneously attacks and celebrates the absurdities of men as they gather in a kind of urban support group. In 1986, the novel was made into a film, directed by Peter Medak, with the screenplay by Michaels, and starring Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel, Stockard Channing, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Frank Langella.
Sylvia is a fictionalized memoir of Michael's first wife, Sylvia Bloch, who committed suicide.
Michaels was a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.
He is interred at Oakmont Memorial Park, in Lafayette, California.
Michaels had a daughter with his third wife, the poet Brenda Hillman.[2] His son Jesse Michaels (from his second marriage) was the vocalist and primary lyricist in the seminal underground punk rock band Operation Ivy.
Selected publications
- Going Places (1969, ISBN 0-374-16496-7)
- I Would Have Saved Them If I Could (1975, ISBN 0-374-17411-3)
- The Men's Club (1981, ISBN 0-374-20782-8) (filmed in 1986)
- Shuffle (1990, ISBN 0-374-26349-3)
- Sylvia (1992, ISBN 1-56279-029-3)
- A Cat (1995, ISBN 1-57322-013-2)
- Time Out of Mind (1999, ISBN 1-57322-819-2)
- A Girl With a Monkey: New and Selected Stories (2000, ISBN 1-56279-120-6)
- To Feel These Things (2000, ISBN 1-56279-040-4)
- The Collected Stories (2007, ISBN 0-374-12654-2)
- The Essays of Leonard Michaels 2009, ISBN 978-0-374-14880-5
References
- 1 2 "Leonard Michaels". Senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-19.
- ↑ "Leonard Michaels Biography". eNotes.com. January 2, 1933. Retrieved 2014-01-19.
External links
- Leonard Michaels at the Internet Movie Database
- The Improbable Moralist Both an appreciation of his art and review of The Collected Stories by Phillip Lopate; published in The Nation on-line June 21, 2007 (July 9, 2007 issue)
- Leonard Michaels – let us not forget him review of The Collected Stories, by Paul Wilner. This piece appeared July 1, 2007 at SF Gate.com. The review also extends into a backlog of reflection about Michaels' Sylvia and an essay on Michaels' called Difficult Friends in Wendy Lesser's Room For Doubt.
- To Live in a Culture: Leonard Michaels' Sylvia and The Collected Stories piece by Nora Griffin at The Brooklyn Rail
- Interview: Wyatt Mason on Leonard Michaels at Harper's
- Obituary of the University of California
- "Audio: Fiction Podcast: Rivka Galchen reads Leonard Michaels". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2014-01-18. – A reading of Michaels' story "Cryptology".
- "Review-a-Day – The Collected Stories by Leonard Michaels, reviewed by Wyatt Mason, "The Irresponsibility of Feelings: Reading Leonard Michaels" – at Powell's Books". Powells.com. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
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