Leslie Epstein

Leslie Donald Epstein (born 1938 in Los Angeles) is an American educator, essayist, and novelist. Epstein is currently Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Boston University.

Leslie Epstein
Born
Leslie Donald Epstein

1938 (age 81–82)
Los Angeles, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEducator
Essayist
Novelist
Parent(s)Philip G. Epstein (father)
RelativesJulius J. Epstein (uncle)
Theo Epstein (son)
Academic background
Alma materYale University
University of California, Los Angeles
Oxford University
ThesisThe Speech of Dumb Animals: Play in Three Acts (1963)
Academic work
DisciplineEnglish
InstitutionsBoston University
Doctoral studentsJhumpa Lahiri

Career

Epstein was born to an American Jewish family in Los Angeles and grew up in Hollywood.[1] He later attended the Webb School of California. His father Philip and uncle Julius were both noted screenwriters. Together, they won an Academy Award for the celebrated 1942 film Casablanca.

Epstein has written 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 most recent 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 has written 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."[2] For more than twenty years, Leslie Epstein has been the director of the Creative Writing Program at Boston University, where he joined the faculty in 1978. 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

Epstein has three children: Paul, a high school counselor; Theo, a Major League Baseball executive; and Anya, a screenwriter, who is married to Dan Futterman.

Works
  • P.D. Kimerakov, 1975
  • The Steinway Quintet: Plus Four, 1976
  • 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
gollark: Oh yes, right, you're working on somewhat useful stuff.
gollark: ⁢ you.
gollark: What are you working on?
gollark: He was meant to be doing the obstacle course thing, didn't particularly do anything, and was told by Mr Wilde to work out how to use the xbox controller, which is doomed to failure I think.
gollark: I know Joshua *isn't*, at least?

References
  1. Taub, Michael; Shatzky, Joel (1997). Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook. Greenwood. pp. 81–86. ISBN 978-0313294624. epstein.
  2. 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.
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