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
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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. She renames Bran-
SO MAY/JUNE 2010 deis University, 415 South Street in presented the library with 90 volumes of specialist, and her sister Etta. Stein intro Waltham, “Frankfurter University.” his personal journal, which he has kept duced them to paintings by such artists as Congregation Beth El, 105 Hudson since the 1930s, as well as manuscripts of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, which Road in Sudbury, is noteworthy for numerous works such as The Caine Mu the Cones purchased and later donated being the place where Glengarry Glen tiny (1951), War and Remembrance (1978) to the Baltimore Museum of Art at North Ross playwright David Mamet (born and Inside Outside (1985). After visiting Charles and 31st Streets. The museum’s 1947) met Rabbi Harold Kushner the library’s gorgeous domed reading restaurant is named Gertrude’s. in 1990. Mamet and his wife, Rebecca room, head to Rock Creek Cemetery in Pidgeon, sought out Kushner, then Georgetown, where Leon Wieseltier Beth El’s rabbi, to discuss Pidgeon’s (born 1952), literary editor of The New SURFSIDE, FL conversion. There, Mamet also revived Republic, frequendy lingered at the sculp Isaac Bashevis Singer spent the last 14 his own Jewish education, eventually ture of Marion Clover Adams, Henry Ad years of his life in Surfside, just north of coauthoring Five Cities of Refuge with ams’ wife, while he worked on his book Miami Beach, while he taught creative Kushner in 2003. Kaddish (2000). Another favorite Wiesel writing at the University of Miami in Coral tier haunt is the restaurant Teaism, 2009 Gables from 1978 to 1988 and wrote some CORNISH, NH R Street NW, where, he writes, he would 11 books. Shortly after his 1991 death, a “sit tranquilly, upstairs in the corner by commemorative plaque was placed on his Since the reclusive J.D. Salinger (the the window, and hunt for the history of condominium at 9511 Collins Avenue. initials stand for Jerome David) died in the mourner’s kaddish.” Stop by the in At the dedication his widow Alma noted January at age 91, visitors continue to dependent bookstore Politics and Prose, that Singer’s “writing flourished” in that search for his hideaway in the Cornish 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, where as apartment. Surfside farther honored the hills. Be warned: Locals protect his a teenager Jonathan Safran Foer (bom Yiddish writer by renaming 95 th Street, privacy even in death. Salinger, author 1977) would rack up high bills on his the street leading up to his apartment, of the still widely read The Catcher in parents’ credit card, although rarely for Isaac Singer Boulevard. the Rye and Nine Stories in the 1950s, books. Its downstairs cafe is a popular lived in this isolated haven of 1,700 for spot for local writers to bring laptops and ANN ARBOR, Ml more than 50 years. “Publishing is a work on their books. terrible invasion of my privacy,” he told Although New York-born playwright a New York Times reporter in a rare 1974 Arthur Miller lived the last half century interview. “I love to write. But I just BALTIMORE, MD of his life in Roxbury, Connecticut, write for myself... ” Yet, according to the Leon Uris (1924-2003) located his first Ann Arbor is the only place that has a people of Cornish, as reported in the novel Battle Cry in Baltimore, the city memorial honoring him. Appropriately February 1, 2010, Cornish Journal, Jerry, where he grew up. Visit the Pennsylvania for the writer of Death of a Salesman, it’s as he was known, was not a hermit. He Terminal (better known as Penn Station), a theater. The Arthur Miller Theater, frequented the Philip Read Memorial 1515 North Charles Street, that Uris de 1226 Murfin Avenue on the north campus Library in Plainfield, 1088 Route 12A, scribes as “hovering high over the scur of the University of Michigan, opened attended town meetings at the Cornish rying travelers” in the novel’s first chap in 2007 with one of Miller’s later plays, elementary school and ate lunch at the ter. Another resident, Gertrude Stein Playing for Time, which embodies key Windsor Diner, 1030 Raritan Road in (1874-1946), known for her Paris salon concerns of much of his work: moral Clark, New Hampshire. and repetitive verse, wrote: “Business in choice and social justice. Miller’s lifelong Baltimore is business in Baltimore and association with the university began business in Baltimore is this business in during his undergraduate years, 1934- i l WASHINGTON, DC Baltimore.” Stein moved to the city after 1938, when he earned two Hopwood The Library of Congress, 101 Indepen her parents died and lived with her aunt writing awards for his dramas; the award dence Avenue SE, which houses all books at 2408 Linden Avenue while attend money allowed him to finish college. printed in the U.S., lured historical nov ing Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, (Another Jewish American writer, Marge elist Herman Wouk to Washington 733 North Broadway, which she left in Piercy (bom 1936), used her Hopwood with an offer of an office in the building her senior year. Her major influence on award money to finance her degree in in 1964. Although now residing in Palm Baltimore dates from her close friend the 1950s.) Miller received an honorary Springs, California, in 2008 he formally ship with Claribel Cone, a tuberculosis doctorate in 1956 at a time when he was
MAY/JUNE 2010 / MOMENT 51 in trouble with the House Un-American Street (his last Chicago still-standing Activities Committee and celebrated his home, where he lived with Simone de 85 th birthday at a university-sponsored Beauvoir, is at 1958 Evergreen Street) was party, so it’s no wonder that he responded renamed Algren Street at his death almost to his alma mater’s proposal with this 1997 40 years later, the decision was quickly postcard: “The theatre is a lovely idea. I’ve reversed. Nevertheless in the following resisted similar proposals from others, but years, Terkel successfully lobbied for the it seems right from Ann Arbor.” construction of a fountain dedicated to Al gren, which was built in 1998 on the Pol ish Triangle at the intersection of Ashland, 13 CHICAGO, IL Milwaukee and Division. That’s where Jewish American writers solidified the Frankie Machine, the protagonist of The literary image of Chicago as a dynamic Man with the Golden Arm, crashes his car, and ethnically diverse city. Saul Bellow paralyzing his wife. The inscription on (1915-2005), 1976 Nobel laureate in lit the fountain summarizes Algren’s philoso erature and a Chicago resident for more phy: “For the masses who do the city’s la than 60 years, described the city as rich bor also keep the city’s heart.” 'Ierkel, who in “literary inspiration.” Three novels highlighted the grit and strength of ordi that earned him National Book Awards nary Americans in his work, shared this and a Pulitzer Prize are set in Chicago: belief. The best place to discover Terkel The Adventures of Augie March, 1953; today is in the Chicago History Museum, H erzog, 1964; and Humboldt’s Gift, 1975, 1601 North Clark Street, which houses which is based on the life of his one-time some 7,000 hours of recorded interviews mentor, poet Delmore Schwartz. Bel and his personal papers and notes. low, born Solomon Belo, moved to Chi Moving to Chicago’s South Side, visit cago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood the University of Chicago, where Terkel at age nine and graduated from Tuley received a law degree in 1934, as did High School. Some sites that appear in Sara Paretsky (bom 1947), the creator The Adventures o f Augie March still stand: of female detective V.I. Warshawski, in the Palmer House hotel at 17 East Mon 1977. The university is better known, roe Street, where Augie frequented its however, for its ties to Bellow, whose barbershop; the 19th-century Armour two years of undergraduate study Institute at 3300 South Federal Street, were followed by 30 as a professor. which still offers engineering degrees as After checking out Harper Memorial it did in Augie’s day (now part of the Il Library’s north reading room, 116 East linois Institute of Technology); and the 59th Street, which is devoted to Bellow’s Russian bathhouse at 1914 West Divi works, have a snack at the Social sion Street, a major thoroughfare on Sciences Tearoom in the Social Sciences Chicago’s Northwest Side. Research Building, 1126 East 59th Division Street inspired both Nelson Street, where Bellow liked to schmooze Algren (1909-1981) and Studs Terkel with friends. Just walking around the (1912-2008).Terkel titled his famous 1967 gothic style campus offers insight into work Division Street: America, and Algren Bellow’s characters such as Herzog, his zoomed in on Little Poland’s drunks, prize fictional professor of intellectual history, fighters, hoodlums and corrupt politicians. and Augie, who knew the still-existing Algren’s 1950 The Man with the Golden CO student lounge, the Reynolds Club, for c r XO Arm won the National Book Award, but its pool table. Paretsky still lives in Hyde 3 < o others, like Never Come Morning (1942), Park, the neighborhood surrounding the
UJ had made him so unpopular among local University of Chicago, and is sometimes ce z> O o Poles and politicians that when Evergreen seen walking her dog.
52 MAY/JUNE 2010 l l APPLETON, Wl plus materials from others including Anaheim Boulevard, where Jonathan Saul Bellow, Allen Ginsberg and Lil Kellerman’s forensic psychologist hero, Edna Ferber, daughter of Hungarian- lian Heilman (1905-1984). The Ransom Alex Delaware, once worked as a child born Jacob Ferber and Milwaukee-born Center doesn’t preserve everything: It psychologist and which figures as a ma Julia Neumann, moved to Appleton in threw out the half-eaten sandwich and jor location in several of Kellerman’s 1897 at age 12 where her father ran the old socks that fell out of one of the 180 works. Los Angeles is also the birth general store. Her first short story in boxes of Singer’s materials. place of Walter Mosley (born 1952). 1910, “The Homely Heroine,” was set in He attended Victory Baptist School, Appleton. The Edna Ferber Elementary 892 East 48th Street. Easy Rawlins, School, 515 East Capitol Drive, built in SEATTLE, WA his amateur investigator, inhabits ra 1991, is a living memorial to its famous At the base of the Space Needle at 325 cially-charged South Central Los An citizen author, and the town’s public 5th Avenue North, the Museum of Sci geles. Mosley’s 10th book, Little Scarlet library houses local newspaper articles ence Fiction offers books, movies, posters, (2004), featuring Rawlins, examines the by and about her. W hile in Appleton, artifacts and interactive displays on sci area’s residential section, Watts, and don’t miss learning about Rabbi Meyer ence fiction history. Forrest J. Ackerman the causes of its 1965 riots. Samuel Weiss’ son, better known as (1916-2008), aka Mr. Sci-Fi, is credited Harry Houdini (1874-1926), who also with coining the term “science fiction” and grew up here. See the Houdini Plaza, playing a major role in achieving literary SAN FRANCISCO, CA 100 West Lawrence Street, as well as recognition for the genre. Ackerman had Allen Ginsberg helped make San Fran the Houdini Historical Center, 330 East some 400,000 books and memorabilia on cisco’s City Lights Bookstore, founded College Avenue. display in his Hollywood mansions, which in 1953 at 261 Columbus Avenue, a were open to the public until his death. A symbol of the Beat generation. Owner 2009 auction scattered his collections far Lawrence Ferlinghetti also launched ! 1 AUSTIN, TX and wide. At the Seattle museum, you can City Lights Publishers, which printed Who would expect to find a treasure trove find photos and graphics on display about Ginsberg’s Hoivl and Other Poems in of Jewish literary greats in Austin, Texas? Ackerman as well as about other Jewish 1956, creating a local howl that landed The Harry Ransom Humanities Re science fiction luminaries such as Isaac both him and the bookstore’s manager search Center on the University of Texas Asimov, Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) in jail for distributing obscene material. campus at 21st and Guadalupe Streets and Steven Spielberg (bom 1946). This led to a landmark Supreme Court offers an overwhelming collection. With First Amendment decision, ruling that a photo ID in hand, see anything in its literary work is not obscene if it has collection of more than 36 million man U LOS ANGELES, CA “redeeming social significance.” The uscript pages, five million photographs L.A. could be renamed City of the De bookstore, designated as a city land and 10,000 objects, such as Isaac Bashe- tectives instead of City of the Stars. mark in 2001, still has that intimate, vis Singer’s Nobel Prize medal and Yid It’s home to Jonathan (born 1949) and magical quality that drew Ginsberg and dish typewriter, a waistcoat embroidered Faye Kellerman (born 1952) and their other Beat poets, and a young Bob Dy by Alice B. Toklas for Gertrude Stein four children. Her novels have been lan in 1965, to gather in its basement and the identification tags of Norman called “one heck of a good tour guide” to read, rap and hang out. The City Mailer’s poodle, Tibo. Peruse Leon to the city’s environs thanks to detec by the Bay and its surrounding hills Uris’ 16 oversized scrapbooks with such tive Peter Decker, who solves murders remain appealing to writers. Michael items as his autographed Miss Universe in the West Valley’s Jewish community. Chabon (born 1963), author of the contest program (yes, Uris was a beauty A Southern Baptist, Decker returns to 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning The Amaz contest judge), research notes for the his Jewish roots upon falling in love ing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, his novel Exodus and letters to family written with an Orthodox woman in The Ritual wife Ayelet Waldman (born 1964) and while he was a Marine during World War Bath (1986). Drive by West Valley Los their four children live in Berkeley’s II, which would become the basis for Bat Angeles police headquarters, 19020 Elmwood district, where Waldman’s tle Cry. There are also Arthur Miller’s Vanowen Street in Reseda, to see where novel Daughter’s Keeper is set. Stop by scrapbooks; Bernard Malamud’s (1914- Decker and his partner Marge Dunn the mom and pop Star Market, 3068 1986) personal correspondence and play do some of their sleuthing. Cruise by Claremont Avenue, the family’s favorite wright David Mamet’s production files, Western Medical Center, 1025 South grocery store.
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