Bernard Malamud was born on April 26, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Max and Bertha Fidelman Malamud. Bernard Malamud's mother died when he was fifteen, during the time when he worked helping his father in the small grocery store they had established in Brooklyn. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in 1932, Malamud entered the City College of New York and was awarded his bachelor's degree in 1934.

In 1942 he obtained a master's degree from Columbia University. For nine years he taught evening classes at Erasmus Hall and Harlem High Schools. Malamud married Ann de Chiara in 1945; her heritage inspired him to people his stories with a number of Italians. In 1949, he joined the English Department of Oregon State College, Corvallis, where he taught for twelve years, rising to the rank of associate professor. In 1961, he joined the faculty of Bennington College...