Bel Kaufman Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Bel Kaufman was an American published bestselling author, a teacher, and a lecturer.

Readers may know her best for the 1965 novel Up the Down Staircase, which was a picture of life in the New York public school system. She was born in the city of Berlin in Germany on May 10, 1911 to Russian parents. She was also the granddaughter of the Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem. Russian is her native language.

She was three years old when her family decided to move to Odessa. The family resided in Moscow for a time and then immigrated to live in New York City when Bel was twelve years old. She attended Hunter College and graduated magna cum laude. She also received high honors from Columbia University, which she also graduated from. She would spend three decades employed in the city as a high school teacher.

Her book Up the Down Staircase did so well upon release that it helped to launch a second career for her as a speaker at events held all over the country. She would follow that up with Love, Etc. in 1979. For a time, Kaufman was living and working in New York. She would pass away on July 25, 2014.

Up the Down Staircase is a 1965 novel by Bel Kaufman. If you want to check out a classic but you don’t know where to start, this is a great selection. One of the better parts about reading this book as well is that it has been adapted into a prize winning motion picture, so that once you have read it you can watch the movie as well!

The book did so well and was really one of the more loved novels of our time. The book made it into 16 different languages and has been put on as a play at endless high schools by students located all over the United States. By now, it has become part of the fabric of American culture. Looking for something new to you that has stood the test of time? Check out this book!

Sylvia Barrett comes to Calvin Coolidge High in New York City and is fresh off of earning her literature degree at Hunter College. She would like nothing more than to help and shape some young minds. But instead of doing that, she ends up finding broken windows, a lack of supplies, a sitting bureaucracy, and bored students that appear to have absolutely no interest in learning about things such as Chaucer.

Sylvia is determined to take on these students and this situation and make the most of it. She came to school to teach and that is exactly what she is going to do. She goes on a bumpy journey that is destined to be very rewarding, even if it doesn’t start off that way at first.

It is one that is narrated through a collection of correspondence ranging from sternly worded memos that simultaneously make no sense, notes of wisdom shared among the teachers, polio consent slips, and homework assignments from the students that speak from the heart.

When this book first came out, it was so popular among readers that it became an instant best seller upon publication. This is a really funny book that is poignant and just as relevant in these modern days that it was back then. Everyone can relate to a beleaguered school system that is redeemed by teachers who enjoy teaching and the students who want to be recognized and inspired to learn.

Check out this book and see what you think of it and whether this one teacher can make a difference. Get a copy of Up the Down Staircase today!

La Tigresse: And Other Short Stories is a 2012 collection by Bel Kaufman. If you love a good collection of short stories that are well written and interesting, you might really appreciate this work. Some of Bel’s short stories are collected and put together for the first time ever, and readers also get to enjoy eight new stories that have never been published before.

The title piece came out first in 1948 in Esquire, where a femme fatale who is getting older is starting to understand at last what it means to actually love someone when she meets a regular looking balding Frenchman and has a short affair with him. He calls her ‘la tigresse’, a term he delivers with affection.

In a different story, the author goes into the origins of the story behind her hit novel Up the Down Staircase. In another, the reader gets to enjoy the story of an optimistic and free spirited Russian immigrant who is so charismatic that she is able to win over any individual who comes her way.

These stories may all be different, but they all share the popular themes of joy and how to live life to the fullest. Follow along with each and every story by getting your hands on a copy of La Tigresse today!