A collection of witty and incisive articles by one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable literary voices
Here and there, now and then, an article by Bel Kaufman, bestselling author of Up the Down Staircase, would appear in a newspaper or magazine. In these magazine articles, Kaufman wrote about subjects of the day and shared interesting or amusing experiences, always with keen observations from her long life. She reminisced about her early childhood in Odessa, addressed an open letter to Baby Boomers on the subject of aging, and pondered the loss of civility in modern culture. Now, for the first time, Kaufman selects her favorite essays from several decades—dating back to 1967—and places them side-by-side in this funny, irreverent, and wonderfully entertaining collection.

Bel Kaufman (b. 1911) is a bestselling author, dedicated teacher, and lecturer best known for her novel Up the Down Staircase (1965), a classic portrayal of life in the New York public-school system. Kaufman was born in Berlin, the daughter of Russian parents and the granddaughter of celebrated Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem. Her family moved to Odessa when she was three, and when she was ten her family moved to Moscow, before finally immigrating to New York City two years later. There, she graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College and with high honors from Columbia University. Kaufman worked as a high-school teacher in the city for three decades. Her success with Up the Down Staircase launched her second career as a sought-after speaker for events around the country. Her other works include the fascinating novel Love, Etc. (1979), a powerful, hauntingly poignant story, written in letters on three different levels, in which she changes reality into fiction. Kaufman lives and works in New York.