Samuel Ornitz would not have claimed to be a dedicated or professional man of letters, because he had too many other concerns which he considered sometimes more important than his writing. As a result, his output as a novelist was sporadic and relatively small. Yet his novels remain arresting on several levels, and his literary career, all but forgotten, deserves attention and evaluation.

Samuel Badisch Ornitz was born in New York City in 1890, the son of Polish immigrants. Though he would write dramatically and realistically about the poverty and squalor of the Lower East Side, his own childhood there was not a deprived one, and he lived in comparative comfort in the midst of extreme poverty. He attended the Henry Street School and went to cheder until he was bar mitzvahed. From an early age, Ornitz showed an inclination to be a writer. As a child he enjoyed...