Judith Rossner
Judith Rossner | |
---|---|
Born | Judith Louise Perelman March 31, 1935 New York City, US |
Died | August 9, 2005 New York City, US | (aged 70)
Occupation | Novelist |
Known for | Looking for Mr. Goodbar and August |
Judith Rossner (March 31, 1935 – August 9, 2005) was an American novelist, best known for her acclaimed best sellers Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1975) and August (1983).
Life and career, 1935–1973
Born in New York City, on March 31, 1935, Judith Louise Perelman was raised in the Bronx.[1] Her father, Joseph Perelman, was a textile official; her mother, Dorothy (Shapiro) Perelman, was a public school-teacher. Rossner wanted to be a writer, even before she could read or write, and dictated poems and stories to her "warmly supportive"[2] mother. She was also encouraged by an uncle,[3] the American-Canadian writer Charles Yale Harrison, best known for his best-selling story of World War I, Generals Die in Bed (1930). She was Jewish.[4]
After graduating from Taft High School, Rossner attended the City College of New York from 1952-54. She left college to marry Robert Rossner (1932–1999), a teacher and writer.[note 1] The couple had two children, Jean (born 1960) and Daniel (born 1965). Robert Rossner taught Creative Writing at the Bronx High School of Science.[citation needed]
She was unsuccessful in selling short stories to women's magazines,[5][note 2] but, in 1963, she did publish a book for children, What Kind of Feet Does a Bear Have? (Bobbs-Merrill), with illustrations by Irwin Rosenhouse.
Rossner worked as a secretary at various jobs while continuing to write. She gave up a job at Scientific American because her interest in the work interfered with her writing.[6] She went to work instead in a real estate office (where she was "bored out of [her] mind")[2] and finished her first novel, To the Precipice. This story of a young woman who married her way out of poverty[3] was published by William Morrow in 1966 to positive reviews. As Thomas Lask presciently noted in his review for The New York Times, "[Rossner] is a lady we will hear from again."[7]
In 1969, Rossner published her second novel,
Looking for Mr. Goodbar, 1973–1977
By the mid-1970s, Rossner was a writer of "impeccable literary credentials," but her three novels had not sold well.
On June 2, 1975, Simon & Schuster published Looking for Mr. Goodbar, the graphic story of Theresa Dunn, a damaged young woman who teaches children by day and cruises singles bars by night. After picking up a man at Mr. Goodbar, she is brutally murdered in her own bed. The book was an enormous critical and commercial success, selling some 4 million copies. It spent 36 weeks on the New York Times best seller list (three of which were at #1),[12] becoming the fourth-highest selling novel of the year.[13] Even Time magazine—rarely a champion of popular fiction—admitted, the book "richly deserves its success."[14]
Rossner sold the film rights to Paramount for $250,000;[10] the film adaptation was released in 1977, Written and directed by Richard Brooks, it stars Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, William Atherton, and Richard Gere. It received very mixed reviews, but was a success at the box office, earning $22.5 million ($86.9 million in 2016 dollars),[15] and received two Academy Award nominations.[note 3] Although Rossner herself "detested"[16] the film, she praised Diane Keaton's performance.[17]
In 2012, the novel was adapted as Goodbar, a "staged concept album," by the band Bambi and the performing arts group Waterwell. It was presented at the Public Theater in New York as part of the Under the Radar Festival.[18]
Life and career, 1977–1990
Following the success of Goodbar, which brought her fame and wealth and subsequently allowed her to write full-time, Rossner returned to her novel of conjoined twins. Published in 1977 by Simon & Schuster, Attachments tells the story of Nadine and Dianne, friends who together marry twins Amos and Eddie. A novel not just about Siamese twins[19] but a host of human attachments, it was only a modest best seller, but reviews were laudatory. Hailed by Jerome Charyn in The New York Times as "a lovely, bitter, frightening book,"[20] it was also described as "... an ambitious, disturbing novel by a bestselling author who might have written a trashy book, but decided instead to mess up our minds."[21]
In 1979, Rossner married journalist Mordecai Persky (born 1931); the couple divorced in 1983.[3]
Rossner followed Attachments with
August (Houghton Mifflin), Rossner's most successful novel following Goodbar, was published in 1983 to critical acclaim. This story of 18-year-old Dawn Henley who undergoes psychoanalysis with Dr. Lulu Shinefeld, who has issues of her own, was a significant best seller, spending 19 weeks on the New York Times list.[24] On page one of The New York Times Book Review, Walter Kendrick wrote, "I know of no other account, imagined or factual, that gives such a vivid picture of the analytic experience, on both sides of its intense, troubled, ambiguous relationship."[25]
After publication of August, Rossner became seriously ill with viral encephalitis. Diagnosis had been delayed: Rossner's mother had committed suicide, and Rossner thought initially that her symptoms were psychosomatic.[26] She suffered short-term memory loss, being unable to write for several years; the devastating illness also left her with diabetes.
Life and career, 1990–1997
Rossner's eighth novel, written during her long recuperation, was
Rossner's critical reputation was restored with
Rossner published her last novel, Perfidia (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), in 1997 to extraordinary reviews. Perfidia (which means "treachery" in Spanish) was, like Looking for Mr. Goodbar, inspired by a real-life murder. A "chilling"[31] story of an abusive mother and the daughter who kills her, the novel is "a scorching portrait of attachment and loss."[32] Hailed as "[r]elentless, suspenseful, and absolutely captivating,"[33] Perfidia is a novel which "burns hypnotically."[34]
Marriage
In 2002, Rossner married educational publisher[35] Stanley Leff, with whom she had begun a relationship in 1985.[citation needed]
Death
Rossner died from complications of diabetes and
Books
Novels
- To the Precipice (William Morrow, 1966)
- Nine Months in the Life of an Old Maid(Dial, 1969)
- Any Minute I Can Split (McGraw-Hill, 1972)
- Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Simon & Schuster, 1975)
- Attachments (Simon & Schuster, 1977)
- Emmeline (Simon & Schuster, 1980)
- August (Houghton Mifflin, 1983)
- His Little Women (Summit, 1990)
- Olivia (or, The Weight of the Past) (Crown, 1994)
- Perfidia (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1997)
As of January 2017, all of Rossner's novels are available as ebooks.
Juvenile
- What Kind of Feet Does a Bear Have? (Illustrations by Irwin Rosenhouse) (1963)
Notes
- ^ Robert Rossner is best known for mystery novels written as Ivan T. Ross; two of his titles are Requiem for a School Girl (1960) and Teacher's Blood (1964).
- ^ In one rejection slip, Rossner was informed that "[w]hen all is said and done, [your heroine] does not wear sufficiently rose-colored glasses for us." (Bernstein, Adam. Judith Rossner, 70; 'Mr. Goodbar' Author. The Washington Post, August 11, 2005. Accessed December 31, 2016.)
- ^ Tuesday Weld was nominated as supporting actress, and William A. Fraker was nominated for his cinematography. Keaton, who was widely acclaimed for her performance as Theresa, was not nominated for this film, but instead won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Hall.
- ^ Despite its critical reception, His Little Women merits discussion; see especially Contemporary Reconfigurations of American Literary Classics: The Origin and Evolution of American Stories, by Betina Entzminger (Routledge, 2013), pp. 86–89.
References
- ^ Martin, Douglas (August 11, 2005). "Judith Rossner, Author of 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar,' Dies at 70". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
- ^ a b c Suplee, Curt (August 1, 1983). "Judith Rossner, Together Again". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Pike, Rayner; Pike, Nancy. "Rossner, Judith Louise". The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ^ Stephen E. Rubin, "Tempo; Judith Rossner's novel success is hard to put down", Chicago Tribune, September 17, 1977, p. 11.
- ^ Bernstein, Adam (August 11, 2005). "Judith Rossner, 70; 'Mr. Goodbar' Author". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
- ^ Hawtree, Christopher (August 12, 2005). "Judith Rossner". The Guardian. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
- ^ Lask, Thomas (February 24, 1967). "Books of the Times That Happy State—Marriage". The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
- ^ "Nine Months in the Life of an Old Maid". The New York Times. October 26, 1969. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ Levin, Martin (July 30, 1972). "New & Novel". The New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ a b "Judith Rossner Writes a Shocker About the Life and Death of a Swinging Single". People. June 23, 1975. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ Rinzler, Carol Eisen (June 8, 1975). "Looking for Mr. Goodbar". The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
- ^ "Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 1975". Hawes.com. Hawes Publications. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
- ^ "1975: Fiction". 20th-Century American Bestsellers. University of Virginia. 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
- ^ Duffy, Martha. Books: The Trap. Time, July 7, 1975. Accessed January 1, 2017.
- ^ Box Office Mojo: Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Accessed December 30, 2016.
- ^ Miller, Stephen. Judith Rossner, 70, Novelist of 'Mr. Goodbar'. The New York Sun, August 11, 2005. Accessed January 1, 2017.
- ^ Harris, Art. Rossner: Looking For Her 'Goodbar' in the Film. The Washington Post, October 21, 1977. Accessed January 3, 2017.
- ^ Isherwood, Charles. Anatomy of a Murder, in Raging Rock. The New York Times, January 5, 2012. Accessed January 2, 2017.
- ^ Mitgang, Herbert (December 4, 1977). "Behind the Best Sellers Judith Rossner". The New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ Charyn, Jerome. On the Prowl for Love. The New York Times, September 18, 1977. Accessed January 2, 2017.
- ^ Leonard, John. Books of the Times: Attachments.. The New York Times, September 12, 1977. Accessed January 2, 2017.
- ^ Moynahan, Julian. A Yankee Pamela. The New York Times, September 14, 1980. Accessed January 1, 2017.
- ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. Books of the Times: Emmeline. The New York Times, September 25, 1980. Accessed January 1, 2017.
- ^ "Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 1983". hawes.com. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ Kendrick, Walter. The Analyst and Her Analysand. The New York Times, July 24, 1983. Accessed January 3, 2017.
- ^ Obituaries: Judith Rossner. The Telegraph, August 12, 2005. Accessed January 2, 2017.
- ^ McFadden, Cyra. Beverly Hills Pop. The New York Times, April 22, 1990. Accessed January 2, 2017.
- ^ His Little Women. Publishers Weekly, January 1, 1990. Accessed January 2, 2017.
- ^ Olivia. Publishers Weekly, July 4, 1994. Accessed January 1, 2017.
- ^ Kendall, Elaine. Book Review: Mom-Daughter Story Makes for Delicious Reading. The Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1994. Accessed January 1, 2017.
- ^ Mellen, Joan. Perfidia. The Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1997. Accessed January 3, 2017.
- ^ Mason, Deborah (October 19, 1997). "Time Bomb". The New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ "Perfidia" Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1997. Accessed January 3, 2017.
- ^ Sheppard, R.Z. Books: Blind Again: More 20/20 Hindsight from Judith Rossner. Time, October 27, 1997. Accessed January 3, 2017.
- ^ Obituaries: Judith Rossner
External links
- Judith Rossner at IMDb