Alison Leslie Gold is an American author. Her books include ''Anne Frank Remembered'', ''Clairvoyant: the Imagined Life of Lucia Joyce'', ''The Devil's Mistress'', and ''Memories of Anne Frank''. She has written literary fiction as well as books for young people on a wide range of subjects including alcoholic intervention and the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

as experienced by the young. Her work has been translated into more than 25 languages.

Biography

Gold was born on July 13, 1945 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, and grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. She was educated at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

Mexico City College Mexico City College was founded in 1940, as an English-speaking junior college in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1946, the college became a four-year Bachelor of Arts degree-awarding institution, changing its name to University of the Americas in 1963. ...

and the New School for Social Research in New York City. She currently shares her time between New York City and a small island in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. Gold has three siblings: poet Ted Greenwald, bed-and-breakfast owner Nancy Greenwald and film director

Maggie Greenwald Maggie Greenwald is an American filmmaker. Most recognized as an independent writer and director, Greenwald’s most notable films include ''Sophie and the Rising Sun'' (2016), starring an ensemble cast that included Margo Martindale, Julianne N ...

. Her son Thor Gold is a film-maker.

Writing

Gold's books have been reviewed in ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

The ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' ''New York Times'''',

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

,'' the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

,'' the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' and '' O,The Oprah Magazine,'' among others. Gold has described herself as a "salvager of other people's stories" and is most widely known for her work related to the Holocaust. Her book ''Anne Frank Remembered'' was co-written with

Miep Gies Hermine "Miep" Gies (; ; 15 February 1909 – 11 January 2010) was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family (Otto Frank, Margot Frank, Edith Frank) and four other Dutch Jews (Fritz Pfeffer, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, ...

, the employee of

Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (12 May 1889 – 19 August 1980) was a German businessman who later became a resident of the Netherlands and Switzerland. He was the father of Anne and Margot Frank and husband of Edith Frank, and was the sole member o ...

who hid

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

and rescued Anne's diary. Gold similarly worked with Anne Frank's childhood friend Hannah (Hanneli) Goslar to write ''Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend''. On the occasion of the publication of ''Anne Frank Remembered'', Elie Wiesel said of ''Anne Frank Remembered'': "Let us give recognition to Alison Gold. Without her and her talent of persuasion, without her writer's talent, too, this poignant account, vibrating with humanity, would not have been written."

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

commended ''Ann Frank Remembered'' as "Beautifully written". ''Fiet's Vase'', Gold's collection of Holocaust survival accounts, was described by one reviewer as having "language as transparent as pure water"; according to another reviewer, each story "reads like a miracle, a silver chalice excavated from dust." Gold's non-Holocaust work has not been as consistently well received. For example, some critics did not like the blend of historical fact and fictional elements in ''The Clairvoyant'', an "imagined history" of the life of

Lucia Joyce Lucia Anna Joyce (26 July 1907, Trieste – 12 December 1982, Northampton) was a professional dancer and the daughter of Irish writer James Joyce and Nora Barnacle. Once treated by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, Joyce was diagnosed as schizophr ...

, the daughter of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

. The ''

'' observed that "so much is fabricated in ''Clairvoyant'' that anyone who reads it unaware of the real lives of James and Lucia Joyce will be led far off the mark". However, Irish author Padraic O'Farrell described ''Clairvoyant'' as "brilliantly innovative and movingly written". According ''The Times Literary Supplement'', Gold's most recent work, the autobiographical ''Found and Lost,'' "captures the rough texture of lived experience in a way that often eludes more straightforward autobiography".

Recognition

* Best of Best,

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

, 1987 (''Anne Frank Remembered'') *

Christopher Award The Christopher Award (established 1949) is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, films and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit". It is given by The Christophers, a Christian organization ...

, 1988 (''Anne Frank Remembered'') * Nominated for

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

, 1997 (''The Devil’s Mistress'')

Adaptations

* '' The Attic,'' television film adaptation of ''Anne Frank Remembered'', 1988 * ''The Devil’s Mistress,'' one-woman stage show, 2007 * '' Mi Ricordo Anne Frank'' (“My Friend Anne Frank”), Italian television film adaptation of ''Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend'', 2009 * '' Mijn beste vriendin Anne Frank'' (“My Best Friend Anne Frank”), Dutch film adaptation of ''Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend'', 2021

Bibliography

Adult non-fiction

*
Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped Hide the Frank Family
' (co-written with

), 1987 (Special edition with new material, including new photographs, issued in 2009.) Also translated into 23 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean *''Fiet's Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945,'' 2003, also translated into Slovenian *''Love in the Second Act, True Stories of Romance, Midlife and Beyond'', 2006 *''The Potato Eater'', 2015 (novella) *''Found and Lost: Mittens, Miep, and Shovelfuls of Dirt'', 2017,

Adult fiction

*''Clairvoyant, the Imagined Life of Lucia Joyce,'' 1992 *''The Devil's Mistress, the Story of the Woman Who Lived and Died with Hitler,'' 1997, also translated into Greek, Hungarian and Romanian *''The Woman Who Brought Matisse Back from the Dead'', 2014 *''Not Not a Jew'', 2016 (novella) *''Ransom Notes'', 2022

Young adult

*''Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend'', 1997, also translated into 22 languages *''A Special Fate, Chiune Sugihara, Hero of the Holocaust'', 2000 *''Elephant in the Living Room'' (co-written with Darin Elliott), 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Alison Leslie 1945 births Living people American women novelists Writers from Manhattan People from Bayside, Queens American women non-fiction writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Mexico City College alumni University of North Carolina alumni The New School alumni