Richard Elman

Richard Elman
Born	Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	USA
Occupation	Novelist, poet, journalist, teacher
Known for	Novels and journalism

Richard M. Elman (April 23, 1934 – December 31, 1997) was a novelist, poet, journalist, and teacher. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Yiddish-speaking and came to the United States at the turn of the 20th century from Russo-Poland. His boyhood is captured in his comic novel Fredi & Shirl & The Kids: An Autobiography In Fables.

At Syracuse University (B. A., 1955), Elman's teachers, Daniel Curley and Donald Dike, encouraged his writing. At Syracuse, Elman met Emily Schorr, who became a painter. They married in 1955, and in 1964 their daughter Margaret was born. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1979, Elman married Alice (Neufeld) Goode, a teacher, who was his wife until his death. Their daughter Lila was born in 1981.

Elman thought of himself as a socialist and his journalism reflected his concerns about social and political injustice.

Elman studied English and creative writing at Stanford University (M.A. 1957) where he came under the influence of poet and critic Yvor Winters who taught there.

In the 1930s, Winters had been a friend of David Lamson who had worked at Stanford University Press. Winters defended his friend when Lamson was accused and convicted of killing his wife; after serving time on death row, Lamson's case was re-tried and he was freed after two more trials and hung juries. Elman became familiar with the events, and the crime became the springboard for his novel, An Education In Blood. Winters was portrayed in the novel through the character of Jim Hill.

Elman describes Winters as well as others he met and befriended at Stanford, such as the poet Thom Gunn and the writer, Tillie Olsen, in his memoir, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs.

Elman returned to New York and worked for the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI, as a public affairs director from 1961-64. He helped Bob Fass, a boyhood friend, get work there. At WBAI, Elman produced radio documentaries, such as a sound montage "The Last Days of Hart Crane", which featured tape-recorded interviews of people who had been close to the poet during his lifetime. The poet Robert Lowell, came to the studio to listen to the montage, and later Lowell contributed to a second montage on Ford Madox Ford's American years.

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