Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer is an accomplished American author known for her extensive body of work that includes poetry, novels, and essays, primarily focusing on women's extended characterizations and family sagas set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, Schaeffer pursued her education at Simmons College and the University of Chicago, where she earned her degrees and began her teaching career. She became a prominent faculty member at Brooklyn College, achieving the rank of professor and later the Broeklundian Professor.
Schaeffer's writing often engages with Jewish themes, although she prefers not to be labeled solely as a Jewish American writer. Her notable works include the novel "Anya," which addresses the experiences of Jewish individuals during the Nazi era, as well as other novels that explore broader themes of identity and family dynamics. In addition to her literary achievements, Schaeffer has received recognition for her contributions to literature, including a National Book Award nomination for her poetry collection "Granite Lady" and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her writing is characterized by deep psychological insight and rich character development, making her a significant figure in contemporary American literature.
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Subject Terms
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Author
- Born: March 25, 1941
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
Biography
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer began her writing career in the early 1970’s, alternating between collections of poetry and novels. Since 1980, however, she has turned primarily to fiction, often focusing on extended characterizations of women and on family sagas in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The one exception to her usual choice of topics is Buffalo Afternoon (1989), the story of a young soldier, Peter Bravado, during the Vietnam War.
Schaeffer was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941 to Irving Fromberg, a clothing manufacturer, and Edith Levine Fromberg. She first attended Simmons College in Boston but then transferred to the University of Chicago, where she received her B.A. in 1961, her M.A. in 1963, and her Ph.D. in 1966. While attending the university, she taught at Wright Junior College, and then took a position for one year as an assistant professor of English at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1967, she left Chicago to take a position as an assistant professor of English at Brooklyn College; she became an associate professor there in 1972, a professor of English in 1974, and, since 1985, has been the Broeklundian Professor. In 1970, she married Neil J. Schaeffer, also an English professor, with whom she had two children, Benjamin Adam and May Anna.
Despite Schaeffer’s resistance to being described as a Jewish American writer, many of her novels draw upon explicitly Jewish topics or deal with protagonists with what has been characterized as a Jewish consciousness. On the surface, the novel most tied to Jewish themes is her second, Anya (1974), set partly in the 1930’s and 1940’s in Nazi- dominated Poland. Other novels center around Elizabeth Kamen, the graduate school Jewish intellectual in her first novel, Falling (1973), and around a saga of Jewish families in Love (1980). Schaeffer, however, certainly does not focus only on Jewish themes. She has drawn upon nineteenth century New England for her novels Time in Its Flight (1978) and The Madness of a Seduced Woman (1983). Schaeffer’s novels Mainland (1985), The Injured Party (1986), First Nights (1993), and The Golden Rope (1996) explore extensive character studies, primarily of women. Schaeffer has been honored both for her poetry and her fiction, winning a National Book Award nomination for her poetry collection, Granite Lady, in 1974, and a Guggenheim fellowship in 1984.