Helen Epstein is an American writer of memoir, journalism and biography who lives in
Lexington,
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Biography
Early life and education
Helen Epstein is the daughter of
Kurt Epstein and Franci Rabinek, both survivors of Nazi concentration camps.
She was born in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
in November 27, 1947, grew up in New York City, and graduated from
Hunter College High School
Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...
,
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
, and the
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City.
Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...
.
[
]
Career
She became a journalist at the age of 20, while caught in the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...
. Her account was published in the Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
and she has been a journalist ever since. Her articles and reviews have appeared in many major American publications and include profiles of art historian Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...
and musicians Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all ...
and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
.
Helen Epstein is the author, co-author, translator or editor of ten books of narrative non-fiction including the non-fiction trilogy ''Children of the Holocaust,'' ''Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History'' and ''The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma''; and ''Joe Papp: An American Life''the biography of a theater producer . She translated Heda Kovaly’s ''Under a Cruel Star,'' Paul Ornstein
Paul Hermann Ornstein ( hu, Ornstein Pál; April 4, 1924 – January 19, 2017) was a Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor.
Early life
Ornstein was born in Hungary in a Jewish family to parents, Abraham Ornstein, an account ...
’s ''Looking Back: Memoir of a Psychoanalyst'', and the tribute anthology ''Archivist on a Bicycle'' ''.'' ''The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma''was published in English and Czech in 2018. In 2020, she published her late mother's memoir as Franci's War and in 2022, her cancer memoir Getting Through It.
She was the first tenured woman journalism professor in New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
(1981) and taught about 1000 students over 12 years. She guest lectures extensively at universities, libraries and religious institutions in North America and abroad.
Works
*''Children of the Holocaust''. Penguin Books.
* ''Music Talks''. McGraw-Hill.
* ''Where She Came from: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History''. Little Brown & Co.
* ''The Companies She Keeps''. Plunkett Lake Press.
* ''Joe Papp''. Da Capo Press.
* ''Écrire la vie''. La Cause des Livres.
* ''Un athlète juif dans la tourmente''. La Cause des Livres.
* ''Under a Cruel Star''. Holmes & Meier Publishers.
* ''Acting in Terezín''. Plunkett Lake Press.
* ''Looking Back: Memoir of a Psychoanalyst''. Plunkett Lake Press.
* ''Archivist on a Bicycle''. Plunkett Lake Press.
* ''Franci's War''. Penguin
* ''Getting Through It: My Year of Cancer during Covid'' Plunkett Lake Press
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Helen
1947 births
American biographers
American memoirists
American women journalists
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Hunter College High School alumni
Living people
New York University faculty
American women biographers
American women memoirists
Writers from Massachusetts
Writers from New York City
Writers from Prague
American women academics
21st-century American women