Rosenfeld's Lives Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing Steven J. Zipperstein

Born in Chicago in 1918, the prodigiously gifted and erudite Isaac Rosenfeld was anointed a 'genius' upon the publication of his novel, "Passage from Home"; someone people 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 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.

Steven J. Zipperstein is Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University. His previous books include The Jews of Odessa, which received the Smilen Award, and Elusive Prophet, which received the National Jewish Book Award.

"'Zipperstein has done, in this study, something usually relegated to the domain of novelists: by celebrating the insecurities, the brilliance... of an 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 Books)"