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Leo Rosten
Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ליאָ קאַלװין ראָסטען; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography.
Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in Łódź, Russian Empire (now in Poland), and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1911 when he was three. His parents were Samuel Rosten and Ida Freundlich Rosten, both trade unionists. They opened a knitting shop in the Greater Lawndale area of Chicago, where Rosten and his younger sister grew up among other working-class Jewish families.
Like their neighbors, the children spoke both English and Yiddish. Rosten showed an interest in books and language very early and began writing stories when he was only nine. During the Great Depression, when he was unable to find other work, he taught English for recent immigrants at night. These experiences eventually became the source of his most popular works, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N.
Rosten studied political science, economics, and psychology at both the University of Chicago, where he obtained his doctorate in political science, and the London School of Economics. From this time date his life-long friendships with Milton Friedman, W. Allen Wallis and other economists who would become influential in forming American neoliberalism. Unlike them, Rosten did not become a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society.
Like other University of Chicago graduates, during the war he worked in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, both as deputy director at the Office of War Information and as assistant to Lowell Mellett, one of Roosevelt's aides. After the war, his connection with Allen Wallis led to his involvement with forming the Social Sciences division at the RAND Corporation. Although Rosten, who was already involved in Hollywood at this point, did not work full-time at RAND, he was an influential consultant on human psychology and put RAND in contact with several influential academics such as Hans Speier and Bernard Brodie. He also suggested that RAND contact the Ford Foundation for funding.
Rosten was a successful screenwriter. He wrote the story for The Dark Corner (1946), a film noir starring Mark Stevens, and Lured, the Douglas Sirk-directed period drama starring Charles Coburn; both films featured Lucille Ball. He is listed as one of the writers for Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) adapted from his novel of the same title. Other films:[clarification needed] Mechanized Patrolling (1943; as Leonard Q. Ross), They Got Me Covered (1943) (story; as Leonard Q. Ross), All Through the Night (1942) (story; as Leonard Q. Ross), The Conspirators (1944) (screenplay), The Velvet Touch (1948), Sleep, My Love (1948) (novel) (screenplay), Double Dynamite (1954) (story), Walk East on Beacon (1952), and Mister Cory (1957) (story).
But funny is funny. Look at Leo Rosten. He's the Jewish James Thurber. The kind of writer who makes you laugh out loud. I made a friend of mine read The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N – she's Boston Italian – and she agreed. But the world of that generation is disappearing. The same with Thurber. That small-town Ohio life: That world is gone. But you can still discover it in a book. That's why people should read.
Rosten is best remembered for his stories about the night-school "prodigy" Hyman Kaplan, written under the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross. They were published in The New Yorker from 1935 and collected in two volumes published in 1937 and 1959, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N. The Education was a "close second" for one U.S. National Book Award in 1938. The second collection was one of eighteen National Book Award for Fiction finalists in 1960. (See The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N for the musical rendition.)
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Leo Rosten
Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ליאָ קאַלװין ראָסטען; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography.
Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in Łódź, Russian Empire (now in Poland), and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1911 when he was three. His parents were Samuel Rosten and Ida Freundlich Rosten, both trade unionists. They opened a knitting shop in the Greater Lawndale area of Chicago, where Rosten and his younger sister grew up among other working-class Jewish families.
Like their neighbors, the children spoke both English and Yiddish. Rosten showed an interest in books and language very early and began writing stories when he was only nine. During the Great Depression, when he was unable to find other work, he taught English for recent immigrants at night. These experiences eventually became the source of his most popular works, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N.
Rosten studied political science, economics, and psychology at both the University of Chicago, where he obtained his doctorate in political science, and the London School of Economics. From this time date his life-long friendships with Milton Friedman, W. Allen Wallis and other economists who would become influential in forming American neoliberalism. Unlike them, Rosten did not become a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society.
Like other University of Chicago graduates, during the war he worked in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, both as deputy director at the Office of War Information and as assistant to Lowell Mellett, one of Roosevelt's aides. After the war, his connection with Allen Wallis led to his involvement with forming the Social Sciences division at the RAND Corporation. Although Rosten, who was already involved in Hollywood at this point, did not work full-time at RAND, he was an influential consultant on human psychology and put RAND in contact with several influential academics such as Hans Speier and Bernard Brodie. He also suggested that RAND contact the Ford Foundation for funding.
Rosten was a successful screenwriter. He wrote the story for The Dark Corner (1946), a film noir starring Mark Stevens, and Lured, the Douglas Sirk-directed period drama starring Charles Coburn; both films featured Lucille Ball. He is listed as one of the writers for Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) adapted from his novel of the same title. Other films:[clarification needed] Mechanized Patrolling (1943; as Leonard Q. Ross), They Got Me Covered (1943) (story; as Leonard Q. Ross), All Through the Night (1942) (story; as Leonard Q. Ross), The Conspirators (1944) (screenplay), The Velvet Touch (1948), Sleep, My Love (1948) (novel) (screenplay), Double Dynamite (1954) (story), Walk East on Beacon (1952), and Mister Cory (1957) (story).
But funny is funny. Look at Leo Rosten. He's the Jewish James Thurber. The kind of writer who makes you laugh out loud. I made a friend of mine read The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N – she's Boston Italian – and she agreed. But the world of that generation is disappearing. The same with Thurber. That small-town Ohio life: That world is gone. But you can still discover it in a book. That's why people should read.
Rosten is best remembered for his stories about the night-school "prodigy" Hyman Kaplan, written under the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross. They were published in The New Yorker from 1935 and collected in two volumes published in 1937 and 1959, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N. The Education was a "close second" for one U.S. National Book Award in 1938. The second collection was one of eighteen National Book Award for Fiction finalists in 1960. (See The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N for the musical rendition.)
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