The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Malamud, Bernard
(ml´md) (KEY) , 191486, American author, b. New York City, grad. B.A., College of the City of New York, 1936, M.A., Columbia Univ., 1942. His works reflect a concern with Jewish tradition and the nobility of the humble man. The Fixer (1966; Pulitzer Prize), set in czarist Russia, reveals the courage of a handyman falsely accused by the government of ritual murder. The Tenants (1971) describes the confrontation of two writersone Jewish, one African Americanand probes the nature of the art of writing. Among his other works are the novels The Natural (1952), A New Life (1961), Dubins Lives (1979), and Gods Grace (1982); the short-story collections The Magic Barrel (1958), Idiots First (1963), and Rembrandts Hat (1973), gathered together in The Collected Stories (1997).