The Magic Barrel Bernard Malamud (1914—1986) was born in Brooklyn,New York. In 1936,he graduated from City College (纽约市立学院)and obtained his Master's Degree from Columbia (哥伦比亚大学)in 1942.He survived and profited from the wearing experience of teaching evening high school classes in New York for nine years,from 1940 to 1949
He then taught at Oregon State University and at Bennington College in Vermont,with leaves of absence to lecture at Harvard. Unlik many of his contemportaries,Malamud's work suggests the modern human being‘s ability to affirm life (维护生灵).A Jewish -American writer, he used his Jewish background (犹台人的历史,文化背景), speech patterns (话语方式),and sensibility (对生活的敏感)to create the atmosphere of a world in which life matters (日常生活是重要的,有意义的) and in which the magical and even