EPSTEIN, Helen 1947–

PERSONAL: Born November 27, 1947, in Prague, Czechoslovakia; immigrated to United States in 1948, naturalized citizen, 1954; daughter of Kurt (an athlete) and Franci (a dressmaker; maiden name, Rabinek) Epstein. Education: Hebrew University, B.A., 1970; Columbia University, M.Sc., 1971.

ADDRESSES: Home—Cambridge, MA. Office—Department of Journalism, New York University, New York, NY 10003. Agent—Jim Brown, 25 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10012.

CAREER: Writer. New York University, New York, NY, assistant professor of journalism, 1974–, director of undergraduate program, 1979–.

WRITINGS:

Children of the Holocaust, Putnam (New York, NY), 1979.

The Companies She Keeps: Tina Packer Builds a Theater, Plunkett Lake Press (Cambridge, MA), 1985.

Music Talks: Conversations with Musicians, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1987.

Joe Papp: An American Life, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.

Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

Jewish Women 2000: Conference Papers from the HRIJW International Scholarly Exchanges, 1997–1998, Hadassah Research Institute on Jewish Women (Waltham, MA), 1999.

Also author of A Study in American Pluralism through Oral Histories of Holocaust Survivors. Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Village Voice, London Times, McCall's, and Jerusalem Post.

SIDELIGHTS: Helen Epstein is the child of two Holocaust survivors, and she brought that experience to bear on her first book, Children of the Holocaust. In it, Epstein traces events and documents opinions expressed by other children of those who survived the Nazi purge in Europe. Her motivation for doing so was to validate her own experience by comparing it with others. She found many shared experiences. For example, survivors of the death camps had named virtually all of their children after those who had not escaped. These children shared common images in their nightmares. Shower heads take on evil significance, as they were used to dispense gas in the death camps. Smokestacks conjure up thoughts of the crematoriums, trains are frequently linked to death transports, and barbed wire is inextricably linked with concentration camps. Children of the Holocaust is widely regarded as a classic of Holocaust survivor literature.

Epstein explored the past once again in her 1997 book, Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History. In it, she traces her family's story for three generations back on her mother's side. The story winds back through the Nazi horror endured by her mother, to her grandmother's life in Prague at the turn of the century, and even farther back to her great-grandmother, who lived in rural Moravia during the mid-nineteenth century. The three women's lives are "vividly re-created," wrote Grace Fill in Booklist, in a book that "speaks to a universal need for human connection to the past." Jill Jaracz, a reviewer for Library Journal, also found this "a moving account" that is "rich in detail" and "told with a strong voice." A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that Where She Came From "not only yields compelling portraits" of the individual women in Epstein's family, but also provides a good history of the area that is now known as Czech Republic.

The author related the life story of a legendary theater producer in Joe Papp: An American Life. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Papp was an ambitious person who, early in life, hid his Jewish heritage to advance his career and social standing, although later in life he embraced his cultural background. Among his achievements are the Free Shakespeare in Central Park program, and the production of hits such as A Chorus Line and Hair. In his personal life, Papp was known as destructive and careless of others' feelings. He went through four marriages and had a child with another woman whom he never married. Playwrights, too, frequently found themselves victims of his fickle nature. Yet his love of Shakespeare and his determination to make the arts live for the general public earned him the respect of many. Reviewing Joe Papp in Booklist, Ron Antonucci credited the author with "providing fascinating background on the plays, the theaters, the actors and directors, the political battles, the hits and misses. She also does a remarkably balanced job of describing Papp's not-so-nice private life." A Publishers Weekly reviewer also recommended the book, stating that while the author does document Papp's difficult nature, she also "vividly evokes his charm and strong social conscience…. Sympathetic but critical, her thoughtful biography is a fitting tribute to the man who fought to bring theater to more diverse audiences and to build it on 'the bedrock of civic responsibility.'"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Theatre, December, 1994, Gordon Rogoff, review of Joe Papp: An American Life, p. 70.

Booklist, July, 1994, Ron Antonucci, review of Joe Papp, p. 1991; November 1, 1997, Grace Fill, review of Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History, p. 450.

Chicago Tribune Arts 'Fun/Books, April 29, 1979.

Christian Science Monitor, September 26, 1994, Frank Scheck, review of Joe Papp, p. 13.

Commentary, June, 1979; February 29, 1980, review of Children of the Holocaust, p. 112.

Insight on the News, September 26, 1994, Donald Lyons, review of Joe Papp, p. 30.

Library Journal, June 15, 1987, Dominique-Rene de Lerma, review of Music Talks: Conversations with Working Musicians, p. 74; June 15, 1994, Thomas E. Luddy, review of Joe Papp, p. 71; November 1, 1997, Jill Jaracz, review of Where She Came From, p. 84.

New Republic, September 5, 1994, Robert Brustein, review of Joe Papp, p. 36.

Newsweek, May 14, 1979.

New York Times, May 4, 1979; June 8, 1979; April 20, 1980, review of Children of the Holocaust, p. 39; August 29, 1994, Ben Brantley, review of Joe Papp, p. B2; December 23, 1997, Dinitia Smith, "For the Holocaust 'Second Generation,' An Artistic Quest," p. B1.

New York Times Book Review, April 29, 1979; April 20, 1980, review of Children of the Holocaust, p. 39; October 4, 1987, Michael E. Ross, review of Music Talks: Conversations with Musicians, p. 29; August 21, 1994, Benedict Nightingale, review of Joe Papp, p. 1, Lynn Karpen, "Biographers Aren't Burglars," p. 33.

Publishers Weekly, June 28, 1985, review of The Companies She Keeps: Tina Packer Builds a Theater, p. 72; May 8, 1987, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Music Talks, p. 59; June 13, 1994, review of Joe Papp, p. 54; September 29, 1997, review of Where She Came From, p. 72.

Wall Street Journal, December 29, 1994, Joe Queenan, review of Joe Papp, p. A8.

Washington Post Book World, September 13, 1979.

Women's Review of Books, April, 1998, Gina Luria Walker, review of Where She Came From, p. 20.