Daniel Fuchs is a writer of major importance in the American-Jewish literary tradition, although his novels are neither as generally recognized nor as widely read as befits his achievement. His following, though small, includes such distinguished novelists and critics as Irving Howe, Leslie A. Fiedler, Mordecai Richler, John Updike, and Howard Moss. His most recent work, The Apathetic Bookie Joint (1979), received the kind of review evaluation accorded the most distinguished writers. Yet despite such accolades, Fuchs's name is not well known, even in academic circles, nor is his work easily available.

Fuchs was born in New York City to immigrant parents. His father, Jacob Fuchs, came to America from Russia when he was seventeen years old; his mother, Sara Cohen Fuchs, emigrated at age thirteen from Poland. Fuchs grew up in primarily Jewish areas of the city, spending his early childhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side and then...