Brodkey, Harold

Brodkey, Harold (b. Aaron Roy Weintraub) (1930–  ) writer, poet; born in Alton, Ill. His mother died when he was very young and he was adopted. He studied at Harvard, but little is known about this reclusive writer except information gleaned from his writings. He is known for his essays, poetry, and short stories, such as First Love and Other Sorrows (1957), and Stories in an Almost Classical Mode (1988). Noted as a detailed stylist, with, some critics say, an obsessive attachment to his own biography, he spent many years working on a long autobiographical novel, A Party of Animals. Excerpts of this novel were published as Women and Angels (1985), with additional portions included in Stories in an Almost Classical Mode.