Wolf Mankowitz
Wolf Mankowitz was a British author and playwright, born in 1924 to Russian Jewish parents who settled in London's East End. He was educated at East Ham Grammar School and later won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1946. Mankowitz’s career began in the antiques business, influenced by his father's profession, and he initially published books about pottery and tableware. His first novel, *Make Me an Offer* (1952), offered a satirical glimpse into the world of antique auctions, while his subsequent work, *A Kid for Two Farthings* (1953), depicted life in the East London Jewish community through a fantasy lens.
Transitioning to screenwriting, Mankowitz adapted his works for television and theatre, achieving notable success with the adaptation of *The Bespoke Overcoat*, which won various awards. His increasing focus on film led to scripts for notable projects, including *Casino Royale* (1967), and he garnered significant recognition, such as the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. Mankowitz also authored a biography titled *Dickens of London* (1976), drawing parallels between his own wit and that of Charles Dickens. He relocated to the Republic of Ireland in 1971 and continued to write until his death in County Cork in 1998.
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Wolf Mankowitz
Writer
- Born: November 7, 1924
- Birthplace: Whitechapel, London, England
- Died: May 20, 1998
- Place of death: County Cork, Ireland
Biography
Wolf Mankowitz was born in 1924 to Russian Jewish parents who had emigrated to the Bethnal Green area of London’s East End, where a large community of displaced Jews had preceded them. His father, Solomon, was a used book and antiques dealer; his mother was Rebecca Brick. He received his high-school education at East Ham Grammar School, a school for academically gifted boys. He won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge University, to study English. As it was during World War II, he was first obliged to perform military service, which he was able to avoid by instead working in the coal mines. In 1944, he married Ann Seligmann and graduated from Cambridge in 1946.
Exposure to his father’s occupation led Mankowitz to start his own antiques business in 1947 in London, specializing in Wedgewood china. His first published books were about pottery and tableware. He also used this background for his first novel, Make Me an Offer (1952), a satiric look at the world of antique china auctions.
Encouraged by the success of this first novel, he next wrote A Kid for Two Farthings (1953), a charming fantasy about a young boy set in the poor Jewish community of East London. At the same time, Mankowitz developed an interest in television and movie-making. He adapted Make Me an Offer for television in 1952 and the theater in 1959; and the second novel was made into a very successful movie in 1955.
In the mid-1950’s, Mankowitz wrote a series of short plays, the most successful of which, The Bespoke Overcoat, was produced in 1953 and published in 1954. It was then adapted as a movie, winning various awards in 1955 and 1957, including an Academy Award and a Venice Film Festival Award. He also wrote short fiction, the first collection published being The Mandelmann Fire, and Other Stories (1957), many of which had first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Other novels appeared at this time, too, notably Old Soldiers Never Die (1956), with the original British title of My Old Man’s a Dustman.
However, Mankowitz’s attention was becoming more drawn to film by the end of the 1950’s. For example, his Expresso Bongo was produced as a play in 1958 and made into a film the next year. He wrote the script for the British film version of Willis Hall’s The Long, the Short, and the Tall, about the Japanese invasion of Malaya, followed by scripts for Casino Royale (1967) and Bloomfield (1969), among others. He continued to receive film awards, culminating in the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival of 1973.
Mankowitz’s versatility led him to write a biography, Dickens of London (1976). Critics had often compared his London cockney wit to that of nineteenth century novelist Charles Dickens. In 1971 he moved to the Republic of Ireland to escape English tax laws, satirized in his novel Abracadabra! (1980). He died in County Cork, Ireland, in 1998.