Raphael, Phyllis 1935-

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Raphael, Phyllis 1935-

PERSONAL:

Born May 22, 1935, in New York, NY; daughter of Samuel and Rose Raphael; married Robert Chartoff (a film producer), December 23, 1956 (divorced, June, 1969); married Robert Langs (a psycho- analyst), January 1, 1990; children: (first marriage) Jennifer Ruth Chartoff-de Spuches, William David, Julie Raphael. Education: Barnard College, A.B., 1957.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and educator. Professional actor, 1964-68; Columbia University, New York, NY, associate professor of creative writing, 1978—. Creative writing instructor at New York University and the New School for Social Research.

MEMBER:

International PEN, Poets and Writers.

AWARDS, HONORS:

PEN Syndicated Fiction Award; Yaddo fellowship.

WRITINGS:

(With Paul Tabori) Beyond the Senses, Souvenir Press (London, England), 1971, Taplinger (New York, NY), 1972.

They Got What They Wanted (novel), Norton (New York, NY), 1972.

Beating the Love Affair Rap and Other Tales (short stories), Orca Press (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Alan Ziegler) Mismatch (screenplay), 1992.

Off the King's Road: Lost and Found in London (memoir), Other Press, 2007.

Contributor to anthologies, including Seasons of Women, Norton (New York, NY), 1996. Contributor to periodicals, including Harper's, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, American Book Review, Long Island Newsday, Vogue, Mirabella, International Herald Tribune, Creative Nonfiction, New York Times, Boulevard Magazine, O Magazine, and the Village Voice. Forum, New York, NY, editor, 1969-71; Penthouse, London, England, editor, 1969-71, and New York, NY, editor, 1971-72.

SIDELIGHTS:

Journalist and novelist Phyllis Raphael is a short-story writer and instructor in creative writing at Columbia University. An accomplished memoirist, Raphael "chronicles her daunting but ultimately rewarding stint living in London in 1968 as the abandoned wife and mother of three" in Off the King's Road: Lost and Found in London, noted a Kirkus Reviews writer.

In the late 1960s, Raphael and her three young children, all under ten years old, moved from Los Angeles to London, where she joined her husband Bob, a film producer. Her hopes for a happy family reunion are shattered, however, when she learns that her husband has been having an affair with an eighteen-year-old actress. With her marriage destroyed and her emotional life a shambles, Raphael maintains herself and her children in the elegant home in Chelsea where the family had been living. Slowly and painfully, with the help of friends, children, and household servants, Raphael begins the daunting task of forging a new life for herself. Intellectual friends introduce her to feminist literature and aid her in experimentation with mind-expanding drugs. Free of the constraints of marriage, she involves herself in the sexual revolution of the later 1960s and early 1970s. She frequents her husband's former psychiatrist, David, whose unconventional views on family, marriage, and mental health offer her a new outlook. She meets writers, artists, and scholars who influence her decision to move toward a literary career. After an early job as a researcher for an occult book, she becomes an editor for Penthouse magazine. Soon, her own writing takes precedence, and she begins to find her own niche and her own sense of fulfillment, distinct from husband, family, or friends.

Raphael's memoir "offers stylish anecdotes for the historical record," observed a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. The Kirkus Reviews critic named Raphael's book "an elegant, low-keyed memoir of a swinging time," while Booklist contributor Miriam Tuliao called it an "immensely appealing memoir."