Author of Cyclorama, Thieves of Manhattan, Crossing California, Salinger Contract, etc. Executive editor, The Forward.
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Articles by Adam Langer
Book Review: ‘The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter,’ by Peter Orner Original
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. A Real Murder Case From the 1960s Fuels This Moody Novel “The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter,” by Peter Orner, revives an unsolved mystery involving Chicagoland royalty. Credit...Hokyoung Kim Adam Langer is the author, most recently, of “Cyclorama.” He is the executive editor of The Forward and host of the podcast “Playing Anne Frank.” Aug.
The shuttering of Absolute Bagels on NYC's Upper West Side is driving some to anguish
By Adam Langer Culture Editor December 13, 2024 Absolute Bagels was the subject of the first haiku I wrote on some forgotten holiday more than a decade ago: Everything's closed But there's a line out the door At the bagel store There is no science to choosing the world's best bagel, but for the hordes of neighborhood regulars, Columbia students and TikToking tourists, there was none better than Absolute. Black Seed? Please. St. Viateur? Not even close. Tompkins Square? Dunno - never tried.
Extremism in the Military Is a Problem
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The United States has long been blessed with a civil-military relationship that is a model of democratic and civic stability. Extremism in the ranks, however, is growing—and dangerous.
‘Philip Roth’ Has Overshadowed Philip Roth
In “Borges and I,” a classic page-long story by Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine writer presents the reader with a conundrum: How are we to distinguish between Borges, the living, breathing human being, and the affected and somewhat dandyish persona his writings have helped create? Although the two do share certain tastes and characteristics, it’s “the other one” who has a “perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things,” Borges writes.
What ever became of the cat in 'The Diary of Anne Frank'?
Editor's note: This article is one in a series published in conjunction with Playing Anne Frank, our podcast about how The Diary of Anne Frank changed the lives of the people who brought it to Broadway, Hollywood, and the rest of the world. Other articles in the series can be found here, here, Among the props needed for a stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank are any number of suitcases, kitchen utensils, and candles. Probably the most difficult of these to wrangle is the cat.
Four young actors on how playing Anne Frank changed their lives
Editor's Note: This article is one in a series published in conjunction with Playing Anne Frank, our podcast about how The Diary of Anne Frank changed the lives of the people who brought it to Broadway, Hollywood, and the rest of the world. Other articles in the series can be found here,here The Educational Theatre Association keeps records of the most-performed plays in high schools across the United States. A Midsummer Night's Dream shows up a lot of the time.
How Hollywood found its Anne Frank
The role of Anne Frank was originated on Broadway by Susan Strasberg. When Strasberg left the cast, the Israeli actress Dina Doron took over. On the national tour and the " bus and truck tour," Abigail Kellogg and Pauline Hahn played Anne. But when the Hollywood director George Stevens began the process of casting the movie adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, he had another actress in mind - Audrey Hepburn.
The 'Anne Frank' road trip that transformed America
By 1957, The Diary of Anne Frank had become an international phenomenon. The Tony Awards had named it best play in 1956. So had the New York Drama Critics' Circle and the National Drama Critics' Poll. It won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The show had run for 90 weeks on Broadway and, according to press rep Arthur Brilant, "virtually every civilized country on the face of the globe" had produced it, including 90 cities in Germany alone. Plans for the Hollywood movie adaptation were well underway.
How the premiere of 'The Diary of Anne Frank' was different from any other Broadway opening
The Diary of Anne Frank' s premiere at the Cort Theatre in autumn of 1955 was a typical Broadway opening. Until it wasn't. The play had just completed an out-of-town tryout at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and the reviews had been good. "It was a big deal; it went very well," Eva Rubinstein, who played the role of Margot Frank, told me of the Philadelphia run. "They made some minor changes, but not a lot, and the same cast came to New York." Even so, the cast was nervous.
Schoooool's In For Autumn
I went to a high school that served a tiny conglomerate of towns in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and I often explain it to my friends as a colder, less attractive Friday Night Lights situation. I was just visiting home last weekend, and like always, whenever I go there, the memories come flooding back and make me wonder why this period of life has such a hold on us in adulthood. What makes it so memorable and meaningful?
What David Crosby taught me when he kicked me out of his hotel room
The call came from the publicist the day before David Crosby was coming in town. It was 1989 and Crosby was on a tour, promoting his new album - did I want to interview him? I was just out of college and I was freelancing a lot. I wasn't what you might call a music journalist and I wasn't a major Crosby fan, but I liked CSNY's performance in Woodstock, I owned a couple of CSNY albums and I was a fan of some Buffalo Springfield songs, and I certainly respected Crosby as a singer.
Favorite memoirs and nonfiction books of 2022
Somehow, the calendar says it’s December, which means another year of reading books has passed. Like every year, I’ve read more good books than I have room to acknowledge with the highly coveted, entirely invented, completely arbitrary Biblioracle Book Awards. There are so many worthy books it’s going to take three columns of space, which means we’ll just squeeze them in before the calendar resets for 2023. This week: Memoirs and nonfiction.
The Novels We Wrote When We Were 17: Adam Langer on High School Rumors and Storytelling
We’d go after dark. That way, maybe if someone looked out, they’d see the car but not who was inside it. Sometimes, we’d bring a portable tape recorder, hide it in the pocket of our jeans, so after we left, we could play back the tape to prove to ourselves that it had really happened. That we weren’t just making it up. Back then, we all were novelists in a sense. Storytellers anyway. We had to be—too much was left to the imagination; too many questions we couldn’t answer.
JBC Bookshelf: Kids 2022 Summer Reading
Summer may be drawing to a close, but summer reading can be enjoyed the whole year long. Here are some captivating children’s books that came out in the last few months.
In ‘Cyclorama,’ Former Classmates Confront an Extra Problematic Drama Teacher
CYCLORAMA By Adam Langer 338 pages. Bloomsbury. $27. As the old saying goes, comedy equals tragedy plus time. Adam Langer’s new novel, “Cyclorama,” significantly complicates that equation. Superimposed on a high school’s theatrical production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” a somewhat saccharine adaptation of the best-selling book that appeared on Broadway and won a Pulitzer, the novel is structured, like the play, in two acts.
Excerpt: Cyclorama
Spring 1982 Peter Van Daan For Declan Spengler, everything that wound up happening — to himself, to all of them, to the whole crazy country if you stopped to think about it — started the day he auditioned for the role of Peter Van Daan. It wasn’t even supposed to be an audition as much as a formality — one of those annoying motions you had to go through in order to ensure that what was destined to happen would actually wind up happening. Some things were foregone conclusions.
Jews in American Publishing
Over the course of the twentieth century, Jews in the United States went from being almost totally excluded from positions of influence in the book publishing industry to being so influential within it that some American authors began to complain about a “Jewish literary mafia.” As I explain in my new book, The Literary Mafia: Jews, Publishing, and Postwar American Literature, there never really was a literary mafia, but Jews did benefit in a variety of...
Decrease in Tuberculosis Cases during COVID-19 Pandemic as Reflected by Outpatient Pharmacy Data, United States, 2020
Disclaimer: Early release articles are not considered as final versions. Any changes will be reflected in the online version in the month the article is officially released. Kathryn Winglee , Andrew N. Hill, Adam J. Langer, and Julie L. Self Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected many areas of public health, including tuberculosis (TB) prevention and response activities (1).
Stephen Sondheim wrote the soundtrack to all our lives
“This story was originally published on November 26, by the Forward. Sign up here to get the latest stories from the Forward delivered to you each morning.” It’s a cliché to say that an artist has written the soundtrack of your life. When you think about it, every artist we grew up with — even the ones we despise — writes that soundtrack. But when I think about Stephen Sondheim, that cliché is actually true. Every key moment of my life, I can summarize with a Sondheim lyric or a show I saw.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the soundtrack to all our lives
It’s a cliché to say that an artist has written the soundtrack of your life. When you think about it, every artist we grew up with — even the ones we despise — writes that soundtrack. But when I think about Stephen Sondheim, that cliché is actually true. Every key moment of my life, I can summarize with a Sondheim lyric or a show I saw.
Can anyone help Kathryn Grody and Mandy Patinkin find their lost boys?
For 15 years, Kathryn Grody and Mandy Patinkin have been searching for their sons. Apparently, during an apartment-move in 2006, they lost the two boys, ages 5 and 2. Well, not the real-life boys, but a painting of them that used to hang chez Grody and Patinkin.
Your art, your stories — a collection of the paintings and sculptures that inspire our readers
On a wall in Barbara Sander’s apartment in Sarasota, Fla., a seabird flies between two palm trees across a pinkish-orange sky. Ellen Green feels inspired by a deep forest, one she used to gaze at for hours when she was a child. Chani Miller of Highland Park, N.J. finds peace and content when she looks at the shabbos table her daughter painted — a bouquet of roses, a carafe of wine, a challah.
How to master the little-known art of indoor birdwatching
On my way to a museum for the first time in 15 months, I paused at the sight of something red flashing past me in the North Woods of Central Park. I squinted into a tangle of branches and dense foliage until I saw it again — black with a splotch of red, or maybe more of an orange. I took out my phone and zoomed in to get a closer look. Soon, I was flanked by people peering through binoculars and cameras with telephoto lenses the size of three-liter Coke bottles.
Association between Birth Region and Time to Tuberculosis Diagnosis among Non-US-Born Persons in the United States
Disclaimer: Early release articles are not considered as final versions. Any changes will be reflected in the online version in the month the article is officially released. Amish Talwar , Rongxia Li, and Adam J. Langer Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Most incident tuberculosis (TB) cases in the United States occur among non–US-born persons (1).
Is Dylan’s latest his best since ‘Blood on the Tracks?’
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Editor’s Note: In 2020, during the midst of the pandemic, Bob Dylan released his first album of new material since 2012’s “Tempest.” We invited 10 distinguished writers to give their assessment of the album that many critics have been calling Dylan’s best since “Blood on the Tracks.” Yes, This Really Was His Best Since BOTT, by Anthony DeCurtis “The best Bob Dylan album since “Blood on the Tracks” — that mythical peak has been both something of a holy grail for Dylan obsessives and a lazy way...
By Anthony DeCurtis, Greil Marcus, Tatiana Garcia-Altagracia, Dan Epstein, Adam Langer Verified, Bill Wyman, Seth Rogovoy Verified, Jennifer Gilmore, Eric Alterman, Jay Michaelson Verified
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Bob Dylan's first musical had a devil of a time
It sounded like a fine idea at the time — pair two poetic giants of different generations and get them to collaborate on reinventing an American classic. The year was 1969.
Bob Dylan’s First Musical Had a Devil of a Time
unopened: ‘Scratch’ The task: write songs for Archibald MacLeish’s adaptation of a classic New England morality tale. What audiences saw (briefly): A play without music. The unlikely collaboration between the poet Archibald MacLeish, left, and Bob Dylan on a musical based on “The Devil and Daniel Webster” started well, but went south. Published Nov. 3, 2020Updated Nov.
From All-Star Flop to Astute Satire in Just 50 Years
“The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer” involved major names like John Cleese and Harold Pinter and anticipated U.S. and British politics. Why didn’t it catch on? Peter Cook, left, as the title character, and John Cleese in “The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer.” Sept.
Why no Dylan album will ever surpass ‘Stormy Season’
When I got the text from a friend of mine, asking if I’d heard Bob Dylan’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” I hadn’t yet had a chance to listen to it all the way through. “Honestly, the music isn’t much,” my friend wrote. “But the lyrics are amazing.” She quoted a stanza from “Key West,” her favorite song on the album: “Shining blossoms on these toxic lands. They can make you dizzy. I’d like to hit you but I can’t.” When I finally did listen to the album, two things struck me.
Bob Dylan
Anthony DeCurtisJuly 12, 2020 The sense that the album is really one long song is an essential part of its appeal to me. In this time of quarantine, days blend one into the next. Greil MarcusJuly 12, 2020 I could care less what anybody, myself included, thinks are the best 10 Rolling Stones songs, Emily Dickinson poems, or Philip Roth novels. Tatiana AltagraciaJuly 12, 2020 When “Time Out Of Mind” came out, for the very first time I heard Bob Dylan with my own soul.
These Radical Black Thrillers Fantasized About Dismantling the Police
Essay Police forcibly remove Blyden Jackson, a local leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, from the main corridor in New Haven City Hall in 1962. Jackson’s novel “Operation Burning Candle” was one of several by Black authors in the late 1960s and early 1970s that married revolutionary politics with the conventions of pulp fiction. July 6, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET You could almost say these novels predicted their own fates.
Meet the winners of The Forward’s Young Writers Contest
Can we talk about something good for a change? As headlines bombard us with stories of violence and curfews set against the backdrop of an epidemic, it’s easy to lose hope. Which is why it’s been so refreshing to step away from the unrelenting daily news cycle and read the work of young writers whose work brims forth with energy, honesty, and yes, even optimism.
The Last Days of the House of David
Just outside Benton Harbor, Michigan, in the dimly lit Pier 33 restaurant, a middle-aged waitress with a tightly curled helmet of hair is gazing down at my table with a mixture of curiosity and disapproval. What's caught her attention is the pile of books beside my juice glass concerning southwest Michigan's legendary House of David and City of David communities. She's been chatting about Dan Rostenkowski with a table full of fishermen, all of whom think he's getting a raw deal.
Tuberculosis -- United States, 2019
Abstract and Introduction Introduction Since 1989, the United States has pursued a goal of eliminating tuberculosis (TB) through a strategy of rapidly identifying and treating cases and evaluating exposed contacts to limit secondary cases resulting from recent TB transmission.[1] This strategy has been highly effective in reducing U.S. TB incidence,[2] but the pace of decline has significantly slowed in recent years (2.2% average annual decline during 2012–2017 compared with 6.7% during...
Dana Czapnik’s Novel Is So Good You Might Not Want To Bother Reading This Interview
Right after I finished reading “The Falconer,” I wanted to talk with Dana Czapnik. Actually, that’s not quite accurate — after I finished Czapnik’s debut novel, one that immerses you so thoroughly in its characters’ milieu that, at a certain point, you feel as though you’re living the story not just reading about it, I felt as if she and I had already had a long conversation. We talked about ambition and heartache and what it was like to be a kid growing up in the city.
On Dec. 2, 1969, Muhammad Ali starred in a Broadway musical
So, as sportscaster Howard Cosell used to ask great boxers: What went wrong out there, champ? When the stage musical “Buck White” opened at the George Abbott Theater in New York on Dec. 2, 1969, it had three knockout draws: timeliness, a strong track record and its star, charismatic heavyweight Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali in a Broadway Musical? It Happened.
Fifty years ago this week, “Buck White” opened, and very quickly closed. What does this footnote to theater history still have to tell us? Muhammad Ali, at rear, performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with castmates from the musical “Buck White.” Nov. 28, 2019, 10:00 a.m. ET So, as the sportscaster Howard Cosell used to ask great boxers: What went wrong out there, champ? When the stage musical “Buck White” opened at the George Abbott Theater on Dec.
26 Years Later, Nicholas Meyer Is Returning to Sherlock Holmes. Why Now?
There’s an intriguing contradiction at the heart of Nicholas Meyer’s best work, a sort of chiaroscuro where the novelist, screenwriter and film director addresses dark topics in a disarmingly light manner. Even when he has addressed addiction (The Seven Percent Solution), climate change (Star Trek IV) or nuclear holocaust (The Day After), you never forget you’re in the presence of a great entertainer who delights in the stories he tells and the histories he unearths.
The speech Bob Dylan should give to the Swedish Academy
Editor’s note: Due to preexisting commitments, Bob Dylan says he will not be able to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony tomorrow in Stockholm to receive his prize for literature. He has, however, written a speech that will be delivered at the gala banquet, after Patti Smith performs "A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall." Here is an early copy of that speech — or at least a copy of the speech that Dylan should be delivering. So, what do you want me to tell you?
These 15 Jewish Heroes Saved Books From The Censors
It started in 1982. A former reference librarian named Judith Krug was working as the director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association. It was Reagan time in America, the era of televangelist Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority. Falwell had recently put out a letter, suggesting that “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Forever” and a slew of other books didn’t belong in school libraries.
These 16 Jewish Heroes Saved Books From The Censors
It started in 1982. A former reference librarian named Judith Krug was working as the director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association. It was Reagan time in America, the era of televangelist Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority. Falwell had recently put out a letter, suggesting that “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Forever” and a slew of other books didn’t belong in school libraries.
Black Metropolis
Anthony Overton was born a slave in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1865. His father sent him away to high school in Topeka, Kansas, so he would have a better chance of getting a good education. He got a degree in chemistry at Washburn College and a second degree in law from the University of Kansas. Later, from 1888 to 1889, he would serve as a municipal court judge in Topeka. Then Overton moved to Oklahoma and opened a general store and a bank and operated a sawmill and cotton gin.
Will Ken Nordine Ever Grow Up?
Ping pong ping. Drops of water in a tin cup. Pong pong ping. A church organ from hell shatters the calm. Da da da da da-daa da da! It's late at night; your radio knob's tuned to the left side of the dial. A baby cries. A chicken clucks. A cat meows. And then the voice rumbles through your speakers like an approaching thunderstorm. "Once upon a you-know-what . . ." it begins, in a rich, echoing whisper. Ping pong ping Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm ". . . old as now it was Ticktock ticktock ". . . came a crowd of wonder why . .
The Critics (2011)
The essential resource for entertainment professionals Find industry contacts & talent representation Access in-development titles not available on IMDb Get the latest news from leading industry trades Claim your page and control your brand across IMDb & Amazon TryIMDbProFree Try IMDbPro Free
The Forward's Guide To American Synagogues
Here at the Forward, we had a big dream. What if we could serve as a clearinghouse for basic information about synagogue life across this country, from older, established institutions to newer independent minyanim and spiritual communities? What if we could create a crowd-sourced compilation of data that will serve as a resource to readers nationwide and offer synagogues of all shapes, sizes and denominations a chance to share their story? A young family moves into a new town.
Why The Nazis Banned This Strauss Opera — Even Though He Collaborated
The composer Richard Strauss has a complicated legacy. Beginning in 1933, Strauss served as the President of the Reichsmusikkammer, the Nazi Reich’s Chamber of Music, a damning collaboration with the regime. But in 2014, prompted by celebrations of Strauss’s 150th birthday, many music scholars took to editorial pages, to reconsider the extent of the artist’s complicity. In rethinking his role, the occasion of Strauss’s forced retirement from the Reichsmusikkammer in 1935 requires special attention.
Rachel Kushner, Michael Ondaatje Longlisted For Man Booker Prize
Rachel Kushner, Sally Rooney and Richard Powers are among the authors longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. The prize, given annually, will be awarded on October 16, following the announcement of a shortlist on September 20. Originally restricted to fiction from Commonwealth countries and Ireland, the prize recently attracted controversy after, starting in 2014, it was opened to all English-language books published in the United Kingdom.
Text Publishing - Love Is a Canoe, book by Ben Schrank
Love Is a Canoe is a smart, funny and romantic novel about the fragility of love and marriage. Peter Herman is something of a folk hero. Marriage Is a Canoe, his decades-old guide to love and relationships, won the hearts of hopeful romantics and desperate cynics alike. But now it’s 2010, and his wife has just died. He passes time with a woman he admires but doesn’t love—and he begins to question the advice he’s doled out for decades.
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