Leonard Michaels

• Name — Leonard Michaels • Born — 2 January 1933 • Birthplace — New York City • Died — 10 May 2003 • Place of death — California • Occupation — * Essayist • screenwriter • novelist • Genre — Fiction, non-fiction • Education — University of Michigan

Michaels was born in New York City to Jewish parents; his father was born in Poland. He attended New York University and was awarded a BA degree, and then went on to earn an MA and PhD in English literature from the University of Michigan. After receiving his doctorate, Leonard Michaels moved to Berkeley, California, where he was to spend most of his adult life and become Professor of English at the University of California.

In 1969, Michael's first book was published – Going Places, a collection of sexually charged short stories. His follow-up book, another collection of short stories titled I Would Have Saved Them If I Could, was published in 1975. It was considered by some as strong as Michaels' debut. Michaels' first novel, released in 1981, was The Men's Club. It is story-like comedy that simultaneously attacks and celebrates the absurdities of men as they gather in a kind of urban support group. In 1986, the novel was made into a film, directed by Peter Medak, with the screenplay by Michaels, and starring Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel, Stockard Channing, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Frank Langella. Michaels' second and last novel was published in 1992. Titled Sylvia, it is a fictionalized memoir of his first wife, Sylvia Bloch, who died by suicide. Sylvia is described in the book as "abnormally bright" but prone to violent rages, "like a madwoman imitating a college student." Sylvia incorporates passages from Michaels' diary, a selection of which was published under the title Time Out of Mind in 1999. Michaels became a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine in the 1990s.

Michaels was a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He took part in anti-Vietnam war protests in the San Francisco Bay area, although he also accepted a description of himself as an 'unpolitical man'. He is interred at Oakmont Memorial Park, in Lafayette, California. Michaels had a daughter with his third wife, the poet Brenda Hillman. His son Jesse Michaels (from his second marriage) was the vocalist and primary lyricist in the seminal underground punk rock band Operation Ivy in the late 1980s.