Bernard Kops (born 28 November 1926) is a British
dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, memoirist,
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
.
Early life
Born in the
East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, the son of
Dutch-Jewish
The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the 16th century when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the ...
immigrants,
Kops was evacuated from London in 1939, and recounted that experience in episode two of Thames Television’s TV series, ''
The World at War
''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. It was produced in 1973, at a cost of £900,000 (), the most expensive factual series ever produced. It was produ ...
'', first broadcast in 1973.
Career
His first play, ''The Hamlet of Stepney Green'', was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1957. It is considered to be one of the keystones of the "New Wave" in British
'kitchen sink' drama.
His subsequent plays include ''Enter Solly Gold'' (1962), ''Ezra'' (1981, about
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
), ''Playing Sinatra'' (1991) and ''The Dreams of Anne Frank'' (1992, about
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 ...
). He has also written extensively for radio and television. His radio play ''Monster Man'' (1999) is about the creator of "King Kong",
Willis O'Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," ...
.
Kops wrote the television movie script ''Just One Kid'' for director/producer
John Goldschmidt
John Goldschmidt (born 1943) is a British-Austrian film director and producer. Goldschmidt was born in London, but grew up in Vienna leaving at the age of 16 to return to London. Goldschmidt has both Austrian and British nationality. He studied ...
; the film was transmitted on the ITV Network in 1974, and won a Silver Hugo Award at the
Chicago Film Festival. Kops then wrote the television film ''It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow'' (1975), about the
Bethnal Green tube disaster of 1943, also for John Goldschmidt, and this was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Drama Series.
He has published volumes of poetry, autobiography, several novels, and a memoir of the East End, ''Bernard Kops' East End'' (2006). He has also written travelogues, including a series of articles about a trip to the United States (1999) and another about a journey to China (2000), both written for ''
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 ...
''.
[
]
Personal life
In 1975, suffering from drug addiction, Kops made a suicide attempt; he writes about the incident and his successful journey to sobriety in his second autobiography, ''Shalom Bomb: Scenes from My Life''.[
]
Selected bibliography
*''Awake for Mourning'' (MacGibbon & Kee
The British publishing house of Hart-Davis, MacGibbon was formed in 1972 by its parent group, Granada. The parent company had acquired the publishing concern of Rupert Hart-Davis in 1963 and the house of MacGibbon & Kee (founded by James MacGibb ...
), 1958)
*''Motorbike'' (New English Library, 1962)
*''The World is a Wedding'' (MacGibbon & Kee, 1963)
*''Yes from No-Man's Land'' (MacGibbon & Kee, 1965)
*''The Dissent of Dominick Shapiro'' (MacGibbon & Kee, 1966)
*''By the Waters of Whitechapel'' (Bodley Head
The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...
, 1969)
*''The Passionate Past of Gloria Gaye'' (Secker and Warburg
Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press.
History
Secker & Warburg
Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...
, 1971)
*''For the Record – Poems'' (Secker and Warburg, 1971)
*''Settle Down Simon Katz'' (Secker and Warburg)
*''Partners'' (Secker and Warburg, 1975)
*''On Margate Sands'' (Secker and Warburg, 1978)
*''Neither Your Honey nor Your Sting: An Offbeat History of the Jews'' (Robson, 1985)
*''Plays One (Playing Sinatra, The Hamlet of Stepney Green, Ezra)'' (Oberon Books
Oberon Books is a London-based independent publisher of drama texts and books on theatre. The company publishes around 100 titles per year, many of them plays by new writers. In addition, the list contains a range of titles on theatre studies, act ...
, 1999)
*''Plays Two (Dreams of Anne Frank, Cafe Zeitgeist, Call in the Night)'' (Oberon Books, 2000)
*''Plays Three (The Dream of Peter Mann, Enter Solly Gold, Who Shall I Be Tomorrow?)'' (Oberon Books, 2001)
*''Shalom Bomb: Scenes from My Life'' (Oberon Books, 2000)
*''Where Do People Go'' (The Happy Dragons' Press, 2004)
See also
*Cultural depictions of Anne Frank The following lists some references to the The Holocaust, Holocaust-era Jewish diarist Anne Frank in popular culture.
Books
* Time (magazine), ''Time'' magazine considered Anne Frank one of Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, the ...
*Emanuel Litvinoff
Emanuel Litvinoff (5 May 1915 – 24 September 2011) was a British writer and well-known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature, known for novels, short stories, poetry, plays and human rights campaigning.
Early years
Litvinoff's early years in what ...
Notes
Literature
*William Baker and Jeanette Roberts Shumaker: ''Bernard Kops - fantasist, London Jew, apocalyptic humorist'', Madison .a. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2014, .
External links
Bernard Kops Papers
an
additions
at the Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
*
List of Bernard Kops theatre plays
at Doollee
Bernard Kops poetry at Jewish Book WeekRooted in PoetryReview of The Odyssey of Samuel GlassReview of This Room in the Sunlight: Collected Poems, Dan Carrier Camden New JournalThe Bethnal Green Tube Disaster 3 March 1943
The largest civilian loss of life in WWll. 173 died.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kops, Bernard
1926 births
Living people
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
20th-century British poets
British Jews
British male dramatists and playwrights
British male poets
English people of Dutch-Jewish descent
Jewish dramatists and playwrights