FROMMER, Myrna (Katz) 1941-

PERSONAL: Born March 29, 1941, in New York, NY; daughter of Abraham and Gertrude (Bernstein) Katz; married Harvey Frommer (a professor and writer), January 23, 1962; children: Jennifer Heidi, Frederic Jason, Ian David. Education: New York University, B.S. (cum laude), 1960, and Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Liberal Studies Program, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755. E-mail—myrna. [email protected].

CAREER: High school teacher of English and speech in New York, NY, 1961-65; McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY, editor, 1978-80; Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, adjunct lecturer in speech and theater, beginning 1978; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, professor of liberal studies.

MEMBER: International Society for General Semantics, International Communications Association.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Harvey Frommer) The Sports Date Book, Tempo Books, 1981.

(With Harvey Frommer) Sports Genes, Tempo Books, 1981. (With Harvey Frommer and Nancy Lieberman) Basketball My Way, Scribner (New York, NY), 1982.

(Editor, with Harvey Frommer) Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad Los Angeles 1984 Commemorative Book, 1984.

(Compiler, with Harvey Frommer) It Happened in the Catskills: An Oral History in the Words of Busboys, Bellhops, Guests, Proprietors, Comedians, Agents, and Others Who Lived It, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York, NY), 1991.

(Compiler, with Harvey Frommer) It Happened in Brooklyn: An Oral History of Growing Up in the Borough in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Harcourt Brace and Co. (New York, NY), 1993.

(Compiler, with Harvey Frommer) Growing Up Jewish in America: An Oral History, Harcourt Brace and Co. (New York, NY), 1995.

(Compiler, with Harvey Frommer) It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way, Harcourt Brace and Co. (New York, NY), 1998.

(Compiler, with Harvey Frommer) It Happened in Manhattan: An Oral History of Life in the City during the Mid-Twentieth Century, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to Ocean Almanac. Contributor to magazines, including Etc., and newspapers.

SIDELIGHTS: Myrna Frommer once commented: "At the present time, my major area of focus is graduate school. My writing has become, of necessity, geared to the academic field I am involved in, namely, media ecology, or the study of ways in which technologies and symbol systems change culture and perceptions. In the past I have enjoyed writing poetry and vignettes, which I hope to incorporate into larger bodies of writing.

"My current work in the field of media ecology reflects my interest in how culture is affected by various symbol systems we use—technologies being themselves symbol systems, extensions of ourselves. Thus I am concerned with how new technologies are forming mind-sets of different orders providing us with new metaphors for looking at the world and how in the past technological innovations projected such changes as a result of their inventions. I am curious to discover whether we can anticipate a plan for consequences of technology rather than just allow them to happen. After this intensive period of scholarly research and thought, I have hopes of returning to writing poetry—an activity for me that is decidedly undirected—the muse, as it were, speaks through me."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Antioch Review, summer, 1996, Melinda Kanner, review of It Happened in Brooklyn: An Oral History of Growing Up in the Borough in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, p. 372; October 15, 1998, review of It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way, p. 385.

Bloomsbury Review, November, 1998, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 28.

Booklist, March 15, 1991, review of It Happened in the Catskills: An Oral History in the Words of Busboys, Bellhops, Guests, Proprietors, Comedians, Agents, and Others Who Lived It, p. 1450; November 1, 1995, Aaron Cohen, review of Growing Up Jewish in America: An Oral History, p. 452; October 15, 1998, Jack Helbig, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 385.

Come-All-Ye, summer, 1992, review of It Happened in the Catskills, p. 3; spring, 1996, review of Growing Up Jewish in America, p. 4.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 1995, review of Growing Up Jewish in America, p. 1323; October 1, 1998, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 1447; August 15, 2001, review of It Happened in Manhattan: An Oral History of Life in the City during the Mid-Twentieth Century, p. 1187.

Library Journal, November 1, 1993, Scott H. Silverman, review of It Happened in Brooklyn, p. 110; November 1, 1995, Paul Kaplan, review of Growing Up Jewish in America, p. 69; November 1, 1998, J. Sara Paulk, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 83.

Los Angeles Times, January 20, 1985, Chris Wall, review of Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad Los Angeles 1984 Commemorative Book, p. 8.

Nation, March 1, 1999, Rachel Shteir, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 31.

New Yorker, February 22, 1999, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 28.

New York Times Book Review, May 19, 1991, review of It Happened in the Catskills, p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, February 8, 1991, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of It Happened in the Catskills, p. 43; September 13, 1993, review of It Happened in Brooklyn, p. 108; September 18, 1995, review of Growing Up Jewish in America, p. 118; August 31, 1998, review of It Happened on Broadway, p. 54.

Rapport: Modern Guide to Books, Music, and More, February, 1996, review of It Happened in Brooklyn, p. 78.

Variety, July 29, 1991, review of It Happened in the Catskills, p. 47.

Washington Post Book World, December 17, 1995, review of Growing Up Jewish in America, p. 13.*