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Man Gone Down
The rise and fall of Isaac Rosenfeld, Saul Bellow’s great rival
In the 1940s, Isaac Rosenfeld was a rising star in literary circles, recognized as a sharp, deep, and original thinker. His admirers included Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Diana Trilling, and other luminaries. Many people considered him to be more promising than his childhood friend Saul Bellow.
But while Bellow went on to great success, Rosenfeld slipped behind. His writing life, marked by struggle, doubt, and carnal distractions, was cut short in 1956, when he died of a heart attack. He was 38 years old.
How to make sense of the success, and failure, of this writer is the focus of Steven Zipperstein’s new biography, Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing, out now from Yale University Press. Zipperstein, a professor of Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University, talks to Nextbook about the complicated life and work of this all but forgotten literary figure.
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The Napkin Artist
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When Berlin Meant Business
Berlin was once home to 50,000 Jewish-owned businesses. A historian is now obsessively reconstructing their demise.
In Praise of Dairy Restaurants
A visit to B&H Restaurant on Second Avenue brings back memories of milchig establishments of yore
Curse of the Survivor
Singer Vera Gran was haunted by allegations of Nazi collaboration. A new book asks if survival made her guilty.
