Malamud set The Natural in New York City, where he was born in 1914 and raised by his Russian Jewish immigrant parents. Growing up near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Malamud became an avid fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and of baseball as an American pastime. In 1936 he earned a B.A. from the City College of New York, where he became interested in the Grail legend, and in 1942 a M.A. in literature from Columbia University. Other than serving as a clerk at the Census Bureau in Washington, D.C. in 1940, he devoted his life to teaching and writing. He began his teaching career in New York City high schools and from 1949 to 1961 taught literature at Oregon State University. In 1962 he accepted a position at Bennington College in Vermont where he continued to teach until his death in 1986.

Malamud published stories for his high school literary magazine...