Helen Epstein

{{Short description|American writer of memoir, journalism and biography}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Helen Epstein

| image = Helen Epstein 2017.jpg

| caption =Helen Epstein

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1947|11|27}}

| birth_place = Prague, Czechoslovakia

| occupation = Writer of memoir, biography, and journalism

| nationality = American

| education = Hunter College High School, Hebrew University, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

| notableworks = Children of the Holocaust

| spouse = Patrick Mehr (m 1983)

| children =Daniel Mehr, Samuel Mehr

| website = {{URL|www.helenepstein.com}}

}}

Helen Epstein is an American writer of memoir, journalism and biography who lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, United States.

Biography

=Early life and education=

Helen Epstein is the daughter of Kurt Epstein and Franci Rabinek, both survivors of Nazi concentration camps.{{cite news|url=http://www.praguepost.com/archivescontent/15615-helen-epstein-growing-up-czech-in-new-york.html |title=Helen Epstein: Growing Up Czech in New York |work=The Prague Post |date=July 27, 1994 |author=Alan Levy |access-date=November 8, 2011}} She was born in Prague in November 27, 1947, grew up in New York City, and graduated from Hunter College High School, Hebrew University,{{Cite web|url=https://www.afhu.org/helen-epstein/#.WQJoe1PyuHq|title=Helen Epstein |date=5 September 2017 |publisher=American Friends of the Hebrew University. afhu.org}} and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

=Career=

She became a journalist at the age of 20, while caught in the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia. Her account was published in the Jerusalem Post and she has been a journalist ever since.{{Cite web|url=http://www.helenepstein.com/resources/JPost-1968.pdf|title=Tears in Prague|last=Epstein|first=Helen|date=1968}} Her articles and reviews have appeared in many major American publications and include profiles of art historian Meyer Schapiro{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnews.com/2007/11/01/top-ten-artnews-stories-a-modernist-manifesto/|title=A Modernist Manifesto|last=Landi|first=Ann|date=2007|website=ARTNews}} and musicians Vladimir Horowitz and Leonard Bernstein.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/04/books/in-short-nonfiction-894387.html|title=Music Talks|last=Ross|first=Michael|date=1987|website=The New York Times}}

Helen Epstein is the author, co-author, translator or editor of ten books of narrative non-fiction including the non-fiction trilogy Children of the Holocaust, Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History and The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma; and Joe Papp: An American Life, the biography of a theater producer . She translated Heda Kovaly’s Under a Cruel Star, Paul Ornstein’s Looking Back: Memoir of a Psychoanalyst,{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2016/02/16/from-budapest-brookline-psychoanalyst-looks-back/61wpOnkJIpEGU1X67fNePJ/story.html|title=From Budapest to Brookline, a psychoanalyst looks back|last=Cantrell|first=Cindy|date=February 16, 2016|work=The Boston Globe}} and the tribute anthology Archivist on a Bicycle.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2015/07/24/czech-republic-tribute-book-to-jiri-fiedler-published|title=Czech Republic: Tribute book to Jiří Fiedler published|date=July 24, 2015|website=Jewish Heritage Europe. jewish-heritage-europe.eu}}The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma was published in English and Czech in 2018."[https://plunkettlakepress.com/loveandtrauma The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma by Helen Epstein]". Plunkett Lake Press. plunkettlakepress.com. In 2020, she published her late mother's memoir as Franci's War and in 2022, her cancer memoir Getting Through It''.

She was the first tenured woman journalism professor in New York University (1981) and taught about 1000 students over 12 years.{{cite web |title=Helen Epstein on 'Intergenerational Effects of Genocide: A Survivor's Daughter Reflects' |website=northeastern.edu |date=2016-07-27 |url=https://www.northeastern.edu/cssh/jewishstudies/event/the-23rd-annual-robert-salomon-morton-lecture/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517124620/https://www.northeastern.edu/cssh/jewishstudies/event/the-23rd-annual-robert-salomon-morton-lecture/ |archive-date=2017-05-17 |url-status=dead |access-date=2025-01-03}} She guest lectures extensively at universities, libraries and religious institutions in North America and abroad.{{Cite web|url=http://media.uoregon.edu/channel/archives/1603|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619224005/http://media.uoregon.edu/channel/archives/1603|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 19, 2015|title=Helen Epstein |series=UO Today, #229 |type=video |publisher=University of Oregon. media.uoregon.edu|date=February 5, 2007}}

Works

Children of the Holocaust. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0140112847}}
Music Talks. McGraw-Hill. {{ISBN|0070195447}}
Where She Came from: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History. Little Brown & Co. {{ISBN|0316246085}}
The Companies She Keeps. Plunkett Lake Press. {{ISBN|0961469609}}
Joe Papp. Da Capo Press. {{ISBN|0316246042}}
Écrire la vie. La Cause des Livres. {{ISBN|2917336072}}
Un athlète juif dans la tourmente. La Cause des Livres. {{ISBN|2917336196}}
Under a Cruel Star. Holmes & Meier Publishers. {{ISBN|0841913773}}
Acting in Terezín. Plunkett Lake Press.
Looking Back: Memoir of a Psychoanalyst. Plunkett Lake Press. {{ISBN|0961469633}}
Archivist on a Bicycle. Plunkett Lake Press.
Franci's War. Penguin
Getting Through It: My Year of Cancer during Covid Plunkett Lake Press