Bel Kaufman
Biography:
Bel Kaufman (born May 10, 1911) is a Russian-American professor and author. Born in Berlin, Germany, she is best known for her 1965 best-seller, Up the Down Staircase. The semi-autobiographical novel is about an idealistic young honors college graduate who becomes an English teacher, hoping to share her love of classic literature (especially Chaucer) and writing with her students. However, her idealism is quickly snuffed out by the gritty realities of her colleagues and students who populate the novel's fictional inner-city high school.
Though she has written few fictional novels since Up the Down Staircase, she has continued as a teacher and lecturer.
Kaufman is the granddaughter of famed Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem.(R. Marder 2001) She is an honorary chairman of the Yiddish studies faculty at Columbia University. (Columbia Uni. 2006)
Selected bibliography:
- Up the Down Staircase (1965)
- Love, etc. (1979)
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