Rosenfeld's Lives
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Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing
Steven J. Zipperstein
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Format: PaperPrice: $34.00
A haunting consideration of the extraordinary mind of Saul Bellow’s unjustly forgotten friend and literary rival and the extremes of the writing life
Born in Chicago in 1918, the prodigiously gifted and erudite Isaac Rosenfeld was anointed a “genius” upon the publication of his “luminescent” novel, Passage from Home and was expected to surpass even his closest friend and rival, Saul Bellow. Yet when felled by a heart attack at the age of thirty-eight, Rosenfeld had published relatively little, his life reduced to a metaphor for literary failure.
In this deeply contemplative book, Steven J. Zipperstein seeks to reclaim Rosenfeld's legacy by “opening up” his work. Zipperstein examines for the first time the “small mountain” of unfinished manuscripts the writer left behind, as well as his fiercely candid journals and letters. In the process, Zipperstein unearths a turbulent life that was obsessively grounded in a profound commitment to the ideals of the writing life.
Rosenfeld’s Lives is a fascinating exploration of literary genius and aspiration and the paradoxical power of literature to elevate and to enslave. It illuminates the cultural and political tensions of post-war America, Jewish intellectual life of the era, and—most poignantly—the struggle at the heart of any writer’s life.
"This long-awaited biography of Isaac Rosenfeld is far more than a brilliant analysis of the man, his work, and his demons. It is a profound—and profoundly moving—meditation on the fragility of creativity, the caprices of reputation, and the doom of those whose lives are thereby made and unmade."—Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza
“Steve Zipperstein writes with such clear-eyed empathy, such patience for his subject's foibles, and such a refreshing lack of moralistic judgment that Isaac Rosenfeld comes to seem like a character Chekhov might have invented—had the Russian master lived to observe the passionate literary friendships and the dog-eat-dog struggles of mid-20th-century New York intellectual life. Rosenfeld's Lives is a fascinating and cautionary tale about how much character, talent, and luck weigh in the mysterious balance that tips a writer toward fame or failure.”—Francine Prose
"Isaac Rosenfeld was a major critic and writer of the post World War II period, from Chicago by way of New York and Greenwich Village, whose first novel seemed to promise--as did the early novels of his close friend, Saul Bellow--that great things could be expected to follow. Alas, they did not, and Rosenfeld died young. Steve Zipperstein has reconstructed from what was left behind a fascinating story bringing to life the generation of Jewish writers and critics who emerged from what was still a Yiddish-speaking immigrant world. Rosenfeld's Lives is a remarkable achievement."—Nathan Glazer, author of From a Cause to a Style
individual, he has brought us a little closer to understanding what it means to be human."--Jewish Quarterly
“Isaac Rosenfeld. . . was many things to many people, but no one would say he wasn’t bright. If anything bound the many threads of his dissolute life, incisively recounted in Steven Zipperstein’s biography Rosenfeld’s Lives, it was his intellect, his supreme conviction from childhood onward that what made life worth living was the thought that went into it.”
--Dara Horn, The Jewish Review of BooksPublication Date: March 29, 2011
13 b/w illus.
![](https://drupal.yalebooks.yale.edu/sites/default/files/styles/book_jacket/public/imagecache/external/91b2b0e54d733eb7f96b8f1e4477b29b.jpg?itok=UnGp0_qX "Prince Henry "the Navigator"")
