Bernard Malamud was born on April 26, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Bertha (Fidelman) and Max Malamud. His father kept a small grocery store where he worked seven days a week to keep the business afloat.

Malamud always wanted to be a writer and began writing stories when he was eight or nine. In 1932 he enrolled at City College of New York, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1936. From 1936 to 1938 he attended Columbia University and was awarded a Masters degree in literature in 1942.

Malamud worked as a clerk in the Bureau of the Census in Washington, D.C. From 1940 to 1949, he taught evening classes in high schools, mostly to immigrants in Brooklyn. During this period, he continued to write in his spare time. His first published stories appeared in 1943.

Malamud married Anne de Chiara, who was of Italian descent, in 1945. They...