Ben Field (author)

Ben Field (pseudonym of Moe Bragin), (October 15, 1900 – June 14, 1986), was an American writer who authored five novels.

Life and career

Moe Braginsky was five years old when he arrived at Ellis Island on March 25, 1906 with his then 26-year-old mother, Bessie, and a younger brother Jacob. They were to join their father, Joseph Bragin, who had come earlier. He attended the New York City public schools and got his baccalaureate degree from the City College of New York in 1923 and his Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1928. also taught at the Hebrew Institute of Boro Park. He worked as a machinist, a logger, and a farmhand when his family was low on income.

He started writing during the Great Depression, using his own name. He started to use his pseudonym, Ben Field, in 1934. He was included in the 1932 "Honor Roll" of distinctive short story writers. Short stories cited as distinctive were ''Cow'', ''Flowers and Weeds'', ''It Isn't Pie'', ''New Tuxedo'', ''No Groundhog's Life'', ''Praying Mantis'', and ''We Take'' ''Mama Out''. The first three were included in the "Honor Roll."

His early reputation was established by short stories that are anthologized with the likes of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Katherine Porter, Eudora Welty and John Steinbeck.Jack Salzman, ed. Years of Protest: A Collection of American Writings of the 1930s. NY: Pegasus., 1967, His first major work was a collection of short stories, ''The Cock's Funeral,'' published in 1937 with an introduction by Erskine Caldwell. This was followed by three novels, ''Outside Leaf'', ''Piper Tompkins'', ''The Last Freshet'', all published in the forties. In 1971, he wrote his fifth novel, ''Jacob's Son''.Jack Conroy, "Books of the Times: Even the Farm Animals have Identities," The Kansas City Star, August 1, 1971, p. 4E. He died in South Pasadena, California in June 1986. He was a member of the League of American Writers."Death notice of Moe Bragin",” New York Times, New York City, June 22, 1986

Published works

Major Works

* ''The Cock's Funeral''. With an Introduction by Erskine Caldwell. NY: International Publishers, 1937.
* ''Outside Leaf''. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943.
* ''Piper Tompkins''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1946.
* ''The Last Freshet''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948.
* ''Jacob's Son''. NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1971.

Short Stories and Poems
* ''An Answer for My Uncle'' in Kerker Quinn and Charles Shattuck, eds., Accent Anthology, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946, pp. 87–98.
* ''A Lesson'' in Joseph Gaer, ed., Our Lives: American Labor Stories, NY: Boni and Gaer, 1948, pp. 96–102.
* ''The Little Jew, My Brother'' in ''The California Quarterly,'' Vol. 3, Number 4, 1955, pp. 3–19.
* ''A New York Form'' in ''The Stratford Magazine,'' Vol. V, Number 6, July 1930, 00. 20–24.
* ''Cake'' in ''The Midland,'' Vol. XVII, Number IV, January/February 1931, pp. 60.
* ''Cow'' in ''The Hound & Horn,'' Vol. IV, Number 4, July–September 1931, p. 556–568. Anthologized in Granville Hicks et al., eds., Proletarian Literature in the United States: An Anthology, NY: International Publishers, 1935, pp. 71–79; as well as in Jack Salzman, ed. Years of Protest: A Collection of American Writings of the 1930s, NY: Pegasus, 1967, pp. 311–319.
* ''The Eclipse'' in ''Partisan Review,'' Vol. I, Number 3, June–July 1934, pp. 27–29.
* ''Flowers and Weeds'' in ''Midland'', Vol. 19, March–April 1932, p. 50.
* ''From an Eastern Farm: Night – The Farmer's Daughter'' in ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verses,'' Vol. XXXVII, Number IV, January 1931, 00. 200–201.
* ''The Grasshopper is Stirring!'' in Granville Hicks et al., eds., Proletarian Literature in the United States: An Anthology, NY: International Publishers, 1935, pp. 71–79.
* ''It Isn't Pie'' in ''Clay'', Autumn 1931, p. 27.
* ''In Egypt'' in Dorothy Scarborough, ed., Selected Short Stories of Today. NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935, pp. 174–188. (Also published in ''The Massachusetts Review: A Quarterly of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs,'' Vol. 1, Number 3, May 1960, pp. 417–437.)
* ''The Japanese Kimono'' in ''Copy, 1930: Stories, Plays, Poems, and Essays.'' NY: E. Appleton and Company, 1930, pp. 38–47.
* ''Maxie Ganew'' in Maxim Lieber, ed., Das Amerikanische Jahrhundert, Leipzig: Paul List Verlag, 1957, pp. 210–229. Trans. Arthur Bagemühl.
* ''The Market'' in John Lehmann, ed., New Writing, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1937, pp. 225–234.
* ''The New Housekeeper'' in Nicholas Moore, ed., The Book of Modern American Short Stories, London: Editions Poetry, 1945, pp. 149–160.
* ''New Tuxedo'' in ''Pagany', Oct-Dec 1931, p. 104.''
* ''No Groundhog's Life'' in ''Pagany'', April–June 1932, p. 93.
* ''The Praying Mantis'' in ''The New Republic,'' February 3, 1932, p. 322.
* ''The Sheep Dip'' in ''Partisan Review,'' Vol. I, Number 1, February–March 1934, pp. 24–31.
* ''Three Sisters'' in ''Massachusetts Review: A Quarterly of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs,'' Volume 1, Number 3, May 1960, pp. 417–437.
* ''We Take Mama Out'' in ''Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life,'' February 1, 1932.
* ''Whom the Ox Gored'' in ''New Directions in Prose &Poetry, 1941'' Mount Vernon: New Directions, 1941, pp. 391–406.
* ''Work in'' ''Prairie Schooner,'' Vol. 4, Number 3, Summer 1930, p. 144. (Also published in ''The Menorah Journal,'' Vol. XIX, Number 4, June 1931, pp. 447–452.)

Essays

* ''Israel Zangwill: A Vital Force'' in Morris U. Schappes, ed., "Jewish Currents" Reader, NY: Jewish Currents, Inc., 1966, pp. 240–246.
* ''Journal of a Tour in America'' in ''The American Mercury,'' Vol, XXVI, June 1932, pp. 199–208.
* ''Obituary for Jewish Art Theater'' in ''The Hound & Horn,'' Vol. XX, January–March 1932, pp. 283–287.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Ben
20th-century American novelists
Writers from Brooklyn
1901 births
1986 deaths
American male novelists
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from New York (state)
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States