From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1964 Jewish humor book by Dan Greenburg
How to Be a Jewish Mother: A Very Lovely Training Manual
First edition
Author
Dan Greenburg Language English Publisher
Price Stern Sloan Publication date
October 1964
[1] Publication place United States Media type Print (
hardcover ) Pages 99
How to Be a Jewish Mother is a 1964
Jewish humor book by American
humorist
Dan Greenburg which was the best-selling non-fiction book in the United States in 1965, with 270,000 copies sold.
[2]
[3]
[4] The book was first published by
Price Stern Sloan under publisher
Larry Sloan .
[5]
[6]
The book was adapted into a play starring
Molly Picon and
Godfrey Cambridge which had a brief run on
Broadway at the
Hudson Theater from December 1967 through January 1968.
[1]
[7] The actress
Gertrude Berg was preparing for the main role in the play but died during pre-production.
[8]
The play was profiled in the
William Goldman book
The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway .
A 1983 French adaptation, Comment devenir une mère juive en 10 leçons , met with long-running success.
[9]
[10]
Gertrude Berg also released a best-selling comedy album from the book in 1965.
[1]
It was re-issued as a mass-market paperback in 1991 (
ISBN
0843100206 ,
ISBN
9780843100204 ).
It is deemed as a book that reinforced the stereotype of the Jewish mother in American culture.
[11] The anthropologist
Jonathan Boyarin qualified the book a "work of covert anti-Semitism".
[12]
References
^
a
b
c Battaglio, Stephen.
David Susskind: A Televised Life , p. 251 (2010)
^
Hackett, Alice Payne .
Seventy years of best sellers, 1895-1965 , p. 227 (1967)
^
The Bookseller ("Non-Fiction. The bestseller of the year in non- fiction was a book called How to Be a Jewish Mother, by Dan Greenburg")
^ Bernstein, Fred A.
The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame (chapter on Leah Greenburg and the book) (1986)
^ Werris, Wendy (2012-10-15).
"Obituary: Larry Sloan, 89" .
Publishers Weekly . Retrieved 2012-11-17 .
^ Wang, Regina (2012-10-18).
" 'Mad Libs' Publisher Larry Sloan Dies" .
Time Magazine . Retrieved 2012-11-17 .
^ (29 December 1967).
Theater: 'How to Be a Jewish Mother'; Molly Picon Stars With Godfrey Cambridge ,
The New York Times
^ Marjorie Ingall (16 September 2018).
"Remembering the Emmys' First Best Actress Winner" . Tabletmag.com . Retrieved 10 August 2022 .
^ (10 March 2001).
Une mère juive joyeuse et drôle ,
Le Parisien (in French)
^ (6 October 2004).
Comment devenir une mère juive.... , lemagazine.info (in French)
^ Emily Shire (14 April 2017).
"How 'Crazy' Are Jewish Mothers?" . Thedailybeast.com . Retrieved 10 August 2022 .
^
"You Don't Have to Be" . The New York Times . 21 February 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2022 .
External links