Fond of fracturing readers' expectations, Stanley Elkin made his most profound impact on his fellow writers. Toward the end of his life, his books were falling out of print, and only specialized editions of some novels were widely available. However,...

When Stanley Elkin died in 1995, he had already fallen into the dreaded category of "a writer's writer." Although literary critics and fellow novelists continued to celebrate his daring, zany innovations in fictional form, his books were falling...

Stanly Elkin was born in New York City on 11 May 1930 and was raised in Chicago. His father, a traveling salesman with a gift for storytelling, probably exerted the single most important influence on his son's literary career. Married to Joan Marion...

Among American-Jewish writers, Stanley Elkin has a very special place. Like other writers of his American-born generation, he deals with a heritage rather than the personal experience of immigration or of the Holocaust. While some young writers...