Bernard Malamud Papers - Special Collections

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"In his 1961 novel, A New Life, Malamud wrote about what happens to a liberal Jewish teacher from the east, Sy Levin, when he tries to reform the English department of an 'unknown town in the Far West.' Labeled a troublemaker, Levin ends up being fired--but he also leaves town with the prospect of better times. The larger political implications of the novel have been obscured by critical tendencies to read it as a myth of individualism and by speculation about its autobiographical specificity. Malamud himself was not fired for being a troublemaker, but he could have had a model who was. A young professor of chemistry at Oregon State College, Ralph Spitzer, was fired for being a communist in 1949, in the year that Malamud arrived to begin his teaching career there."

- Suzanne Clark, Cold Warriors: Manliness on Trial in the West, 2000

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), a major American novelist and short story writer, taught at Oregon State University from 1949-1961. A prolific author, he received a Pulitzer Prize (The Fixer, 1966) and two National Book Awards (The Magic Barrel, 1959; The Fixer, 1966) for his work. The Malamud Papers include an assortment of personal correspondence relating to Malamud's tenure as professor and writer at Oregon State University. In addition, the collection features several boxes of newspaper clippings, as well as signed first editions and published translations of his books.

The collection consists of newspaper clippings, book reviews, memorial service notes, correspondence, videos, and periodical articles covering the years 1949 through 1998. It also contains a collection of his published works in foreign language editions. The personal correspondence in the Malamud Collection consists of items to and from Chester Garrison (covering the years 1965-1985) and Sylvan Karchmer (covering the years 1952-1971). General correspondence spans the years 1949-1986, and includes letters written by his wife Ann Malamud. The newspaper clippings, mostly reviews of Malamud's books, cover the years 1952, when his first book, The Natural, was published, to 1971. The remainder of the collection includes various items such as Malamud's memorial service notes, an audio tape of the service, and four video tapes documenting his work.

“My Father is a Book,” a reading from the Threepenny Review essay.
Janna Malamud Smith, November 9, 2007.

1 more video available from this event.

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27:12 - Transcript Available

Bern Malamud: An Instinctive Friendship
by Chester Garrison. 1998. 10 pages.

Biographical Note

Quantity

18 linear feet, 15 boxes