Whether you're an armchair traveler or road trip warrior, join us on a journey through America to visit homes, restaurants, bookshops, hotels, schools, museums, memorials and the occasional monument linked to some of our nation's Jewish authors. Along the way you'll gain insight into how these celebrated-and not so celebrated-writers lived and wrote. NEW YORK, NY Built in 1902, the Algonquin Hotel still famous exchanges: for example, Noel friend, Frederik Pohl, writes of how stands in all its Edwardian elegance at Coward’s compliment to Ferber on her Isaac’s father tried to prevent him from 59 West 44th Street. In its restaurant, new suit. “You look almost like a man,” reading pulp fiction sold in the store be­ beyond the signature oak-paneled lobby, he said, to which Ferber replied, “So do cause it would interfere with his school is a replica of the celebrated Round Table you.” Kevin Fitzpatrick, a Dorothy Parker work, but Isaac convinced him that a pe­ at which, from 1919 to 1929, a group researcher, leads walking tours devoted riodical such as Amazing Stories was fine, of sharp-tongued 20-somethings came to Round Table members; download the because, although fiction, it was “sci­ together for food, drink (no alcohol in schedule at dorothyparker.com. Show ence.” Asimov’s Foundation and Robot se­ the Prohibition years) and repartee. The Algonquin’s management a published ries are said to have inspired Gene Rod- daily gathering purportedly got its start work or one in progress and receive a denberry’s Star Trek. The Windsor Place when hotel owner Frank Case, in hopes 25 percent discount on a hotel room. building still stands, as does Asimov’s of attracting a literary clientele, offered Although born in Russia, prolific last home, on the 33 rd floor of Park these struggling artists free celery, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov Ten Apartments at 10 West 66th Street, popovers and a reserved table during the where he lived the last 17 years of his life. lunch hour. “No one outside the mythical As you cruise the city, stop by the order was permitted to sit at the Round art deco highrise at Two Park Avenue Table,” said Edna Ferber (1885-1968). where Ayn Rand (1905-1982) (born One of the group’s original members, Alisa Zinoviena Rosenbaum) was an she would become the most widely read unpaid typist for architect Ely Jacques author of her time with such works as So Kahn while researching her famous B ig (a 1926 Pulitzer Prize winner), Giant, novel The Fountainhead (1943); 206 East Show Boat and Cimarron. Her colleagues, 7th Street, where poet Allen Ginsberg “a hard-boiled crew, brilliant, wise, (1926-1997) entertained Jack Kerouac witty, generous and debunked,” included (1920-1992) always thought of him­ and other Beat generation artists in his George S. Kaufman (1889-1961), with self as a New Yorker; he rarely left ex­ apartment; the Biltmore office build­ whom Ferber co-authored such plays cept for military service and to teach. ing at 3 3 5 Madison Avenue, which now as D inner at Eight and The Royal Family, Before he was 10, Asimov began work­ houses the Biltmore Hotel clock under as well as Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) ing in the first of his father’s Brooklyn which J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) used to (her father was Jewish) who was best candy shops. A graduate (before Nor­ meet New Yorker editor William Shawn; i n e> known for saucy sayings; Herman J. man Mailer, 1923-2007) of Boys’ High 1 31 Grace Court, where playwright Ar­ <Cl Mankiewicz (1897-1953), who co-wrote School, an amazing Romanesque Reviv­ (1915-2005) lived while O thur Miller z < Citizen Kane (1941); and comedian Harpo al building at 832 Mercy Street, Asimov working on Death of a Salesman (1949); £ OLlJ Marx, the onscreen silent Marx brother. was a 15-year-old Columbia University and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, 5 East lii CJ £ On view today is the circular table holding student when his father opened a store 62nd Street, which Herman Wouk LlJ <75 their place cards and a six-foot-wide O in 1936 at 174 Windsor Place, in Brook­ (born 1915) helped found in 1958. Take CL OCL oil painting of the group recalling their lyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. An old a ferry to the Statue of Liberty: The 48 MAY/JUNE 2010 sonnet “The New Colossus,” by Emma mous school fight song: “We play foot­ exploration of the conflicts between the Lazarus (1849-1887), is engraved ball, baseball, soccer. We keep matzohs religious and secular worlds. In February on the bronze plaque at its pedestal. in our locker.” Also, stop by the Newark 2010, the university’s Rare Book and After this whirlwind tour, imbibe the Public Library, 5 Washington Street, Manuscript Library, 3420 Walnut Street, literary atmosphere along with coffee which plays a major role in Goodbye, Co­ opened the archives that Potok bequeathed and strudel at the Hungarian Pastry lumbus (1959). at his death. The collection contains Shop, an unofficial Columbia Univer­ sermons, fan mail (including a letter from sity outpost at 1030 Amsterdam Avenue, H ELIZABETH, NJ Elie Wiesel) and drafts of his more than a where students and writers have con­ dozen books. Notes about other aspects of gregated since the 70s. Author Nathan Judy Blume (bom 1938) says that many his life include his experiences as an army Englander (born 1970) explains its at­ of her children’s and young adult books chaplain in Korea and as editor-in-chief tractions: “...the writing life...can be “are set in New Jersey because that’s of the Jewish Publication Society, now very isolating. I love the community where I was born and raised.” Growing located at 2100 Arch Street. Suburban that the pastry shop provides.” The es­ up on Shelley Avenue in Elizabeth, she Philadelphia sites to visit include Temple tablishment flaunts its muse-like quali­ walked two blocks, surrounded by inspir­ Beth-Hillel, 1001 Remington Road #1, ties by hanging its patrons’ framed book ing literary-named streets like Byron and Wynnewood, where Potok founded the jackets on the walls. Browning, to Victor Mravlag Elemen­ Library Minyan. Not far from his home in tary School (now called Number 21), 13 2 Merion Station is Hymie’s Merion Deli, @ NEWARK, NJ Shelley Avenue, which Blume character­ 342 Montgomery Avenue, where Potok izes as always “an adventure” because of regularly stopped for coffee and bagels. Most of Pulitzer and National Book threatening dogs. She graduated in 1952 Award winner Philip Roth’s (born from Battin High School, at 300 South U BOSTON, MA 1933) 27 novels take place in Newark, Broad Street, which was then the only New Jersey. According to Roth, the all-girls public high school in Newjersey. Beantown has become a modem Jewish creation of Interstate 78 destroyed the She and her friends complained about literary hub. “I would argue that Bos­ working class Jewish neighborhood of their isolation from boys, but Blume pro­ ton is the contemporary incarnation of Weequahic where he grew up, although claims, “We ran the school.” Yavneh, which became the center of the many landmarks of the 1930s and 1940s Jewish universe after the destruction of remain. Still standing are the Newark Jerusalem 2,000 years ago,” Anita Dia- Beth Israel Medical Center, 201 Lyons 11 PARAMUS, NJ mant (bom 1951) once said. Diamant, Avenue, where Roth was born, and a Cedar Park Cemetery at 735 Forest who lives in Newton, a largely Jewish building crowned with a Torah relief, Avenue is known as a final resting town west of Boston, may be the only once B’nai Jeshurun, now the Hopewell place for artists and performers. Buried contemporary writer anywhere to inspire Baptist Church, 17 Muhammad Ali Ave­ here are such Jewish American literary a mikvah. She used her fame as the au­ nue. In 2005, Roth joined the city’s may­ notables as Isaac Bashevis Singer thor of the 1997 novel The Red Tent to or to commemorate the home where he (1902-1991), poet and novelist Maxwell galvanize the Boston Jewish community spent his first 19 years with a street sign Bodenheim (1892-1954), Yiddish poet to build Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters at the intersection of Summit and Keer Peretz Kaminsky (1916-2005) and poet at 1838 Washington Street, a pluralistic Avenues, now known as Philip Roth Pla­ Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966). mikvah that offers a range of educational za. A plaque documents his family’s two- and arts programs. Writers like Diamant and-a-half story wood-framed house at and best-selling novelist Tova Mirvis 81 Summit Street, just two doors down 11 PHILADELPHIA, PA (The Ladies Auxiliary, 1999) may be found from the intersection. Like his famous Bom in Brooklyn, Chaim Fotok deep in conversation at Newton’s John­ character Alexander Portnoy {Portnoy’s (1929-2002), author, rabbi and ny’s Luncheonette, 30 Langley Road, a Complaint, 1969), Roth graduated from accomplished painter, spent most of his popular hangout for Jewish professionals, Weequahic High School, 279 Chancel­ life in Philadelphia. In 1967 he had just and the Newton Centre Starbucks, 1269 lor Avenue, a significant art-deco build­ completed his Ph.D. in philosophy from Centre Street. Rebecca Newberger ing that remains an active, although now the University of Pennsylvania when he Goldstein’s (bom 1950) 36 Arguments impoverished, high school. Recall Port­ published his first and still most famous For the Existence o f God (2010) is set amid noy's Complaint by singing the novel’s fa­ book, The Chosen, which began his Boston’s landmarks.