Bernard Malamud was born in 1914 in New York City and later received his B. A. from City College of New York and his M. A. from Columbia University. All of Malamuds works are highly respected, including Armistice (his first), The Magic Barrel, which won the National Book Award, The Fixer, which received a Pulitzer Prize. The Assistant, The Natural, The Fixer, and The Angel Levine, which were all adapted as films. Bernard Malamud died in 1986.