Leslie Epstein
Leslie Epstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Leslie Donald Epstein May 4, 1938 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 18, 2025 (aged 87) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Parent | Philip G. Epstein (father) |
| Relatives | Julius J. Epstein (uncle) Theo Epstein (son) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Yale University Oxford University UCLA |
| Thesis | The Speech of Dumb Animals: Play in Three Acts (1963) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | English |
| Institutions | Boston University |
| Doctoral students | Jhumpa Lahiri |
Leslie Donald Epstein (May 4, 1938 – May 18, 2025) was an American educator, essayist, and novelist.
Career
[edit]Epstein was born on May 4, 1938 to an American Jewish family in Los Angeles and grew up in Hollywood.[1][2] His father Philip and uncle Julius were both noted screenwriters. Together, they won an Academy Award for the celebrated 1942 film Casablanca.
Epstein attended the Webb School of California, and went to Yale University. In 1960 he matriculated at Merton College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship; he attained a Diploma in Social Anthropology in 1962. He returned to the United States as a graduate student in Theatre Arts at UCLA.[1] At the time of his death, he was Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Boston University, where he joined the faculty in 1978.
Epstein wrote nine novels including King of the Jews (1979), about Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Judenrat of the Łódź ghetto during World War II; and Pandaemonium (1997). His San Remo Drive: A Novel from Memory (2004) was based on his childhood growing up in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s.
Epstein's last novels are The Eighth Wonder of the World, published by Other Press in 2006, and Liebestod: Opera Buffa with Lieb Goldkorn, published by W. W. Norton & Co. in February 2012.
Epstein wrote articles for Esquire, The Atlantic, Playboy, Harper's, The Yale Review, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Among those articles is his essay, "Returning to Proust's World Stirs Remembrance", for the New York Times series, 'Writers on Writing' (Vol. II). In it, he defined reading Marcel Proust "ala Epstein" as reading Proust each night before bedtime; by confining the session to two pages of five minutes, he created a five-year project to complete all the volumes of A la recherche du temps perdu. His rationale: "It is not a bad idea to keep a nightly appointment with a noble mind; it has the power to purify even the most wasted day."[3] In February 2007, his play King of the Jews (not an adaptation of his earlier novel, but an independent realization of the same theme) was premiered at Boston Playwrights' Theatre to critical acclaim.
Personal life
[edit]Epstein had three children: Paul, a high school counselor; Theo, a Major League Baseball executive; and Anya, a screenwriter, who is married to Dan Futterman.
Epstein died in Boston from complications of heart surgery on May 18, 2025, at the age of 87.[4][5]
Works
[edit]- P.D. Kimerakov, 1975
- The Steinway Quintet: Plus Four, 1976
- The Elder, 1979
- King of the Jews, 1979
- Regina, 1982
- Goldkorn Tales, 1985
- Pinto and Sons, 1990
- Pandemonium, 1997
- Ice Fire Water, 1999
- San Remo Drive, 2003
- The Eighth Wonder of the World, 2006
- Liebestod, 2012
References
[edit]- ^ a b Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900–1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 523.
- ^ Taub, Michael; Shatzky, Joel (1997). Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook. Greenwood. pp. 81–86. ISBN 978-0313294624.
- ^ Epstein, Leslie (2001-06-04). "WRITERS ON WRITING; Return Trip to Proust's World Stirs Personal Remembrance". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-20.
- ^ Marquard, Bryan (May 19, 2025). "Leslie Epstein, author and creative writing professor whose novels drew from his family's storied legacy, dies at 87". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
- ^ Sandomir, Richard (May 22, 2025). "Leslie Epstein, Writer Who Could Both Do and Teach, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
External links
[edit]- "Creative Writing Program Annual Faculty Reading" Video of reading, April 28, 2009
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1938 births
- 2025 deaths
- American Zionists
- Writers from Los Angeles
- American male essayists
- American male novelists
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American male writers
- 20th-century American essayists
- 21st-century American essayists
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American novelists
- Jewish American essayists
- Jewish American novelists
- Yale College alumni
- David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- Boston University faculty
- Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
- 21st-century American Jews
- Epstein family