I was born in Germany and came to this country in 1938 at age four with my parents and brother.  I grew up on Long Island, New York and went to the University of Missouri to major in Journalism.  I dropped out my junior year and enlisted in the army, serving over two years in Germany from 1955 to 1957.  I returned to Europe to study at the Sorbonne from 1958 to 1959.  In 1960 I came out to California, where I’ve lived most of the time since.  I returned to school in 1969 and received my B.A., M.A., and teaching credential in English from San Francisco State University.  I’ve taught in the San Francisco schools since 1984.  Before that I worked for several years for the State of California Employment Development Department.  I’ve also been a bank teller, junior accountant, grocery clerk, and mail clerk.

    I’ve been married twice and have one son from my first marriage who teaches history at City University of New York.  I’ve written another, longer novel - unpublished - which deals, indirectly, with the Holocaust.  I’ve written, on and off, all my adult life.  I like to read, walk in the woods, go on trips, and watch movies.  Like the hero of Change at Jamaica I can find magic in a darkened movie theater.  I still remember with fondness spending summer afternoons at the old Mineola Theater - torn down long ago - when they still had double features, serials like Batman, newsreels, and cartoons.  You came out of the air conditioned theater into the hot glare of the day and walked across the railroad bridge back to “Garden Grove,” still holding on to the dramatic images of the films.  Anything was possible.  I haven’t lost that belief.  Like Izzie Frankel’s daughters, my students often draw me into their world.  It keeps me young.