Daniel Stern (writer)

Daniel Stern was raised on the Lower East Side and the Bronx in New York City.

Stern was talented and adept in many areas. Before starting his career as a writer, Stern was an accomplished cellist and promising composer. After graduating from The High School of Music and Art, he earned spots in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra and played with jazz giant Charlie Parker.[1] He served as vice president at McCann-Erickson, Warner Bros., and CBS.[1]

As a young writer, Stern and Bernard Malamud maintained a close friendship. Stern was a prolific and critically acclaimed writer. He published nine novels and three collections of short fiction and also served as the editor of Hampton Shorts. His work is celebrated for explorations of post-World War II Jewish-American life, formal experimentation in the novel, and for the innovation in the short story known as the "Twice Told Tale".[2] His first collection of such stories, Twice Told Tales, was called a "powerful emotional experience" by Ronald Sanders of The Washington Post.[3]

Although his novels and short stories are admired for their lyricism and experimentation, he only momentarily penetrated the mainstream with the novels Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die and The Suicide Academy (the first novel of the Wolf Walker trilogy). Publishers Weekly described him as "a writer's writer",[4] and as such he remains something of a cult figure. Anaïs Nin devoted an essay to The Suicide Academy in her collection In Favor of the Sensitive Man.

He collected awards for his writing throughout his career, including the International Prix du Souvenir from the Bergen Belsen Society and the Government of France, the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two Pushcart Prizes, two O. Henry Prizes, and publication in Best American Short Stories.

Stern taught at Wesleyan, Pace, New York, and Harvard University. He taught in the creative writing program at the University of Houston from 1992 to 2006, where he was Cullen Distinguished Professor of English. He died of complications from heart surgery on January 24, 2007.[5]