Leonard Michaels (January 2, 1933 – May 10, 2003) was an American writer of
short stories, novels, and essays. He was born in New York City to
Jewish parents; his father was born in Poland. He went to college and earned his
BA from
New York University and went on to acquire an
MA as well as a PhD in English Literature from the
University of Michigan, before spending most of his adult life in
Berkeley, California.
Going Places, his first book of short stories, made his reputation as one of the most brilliant of that era's fiction writers; the stories are urbane, funny, and written in a private, hectic diction that gives them a remarkable edge. The follow-up, coming six years later, was
I Would Have Saved Them If I Could, a collection considered by some as strong as the first.
The Men's Club, Michaels' first novel, is a story-like, relatively short comedic work that simultaneously attacks and celebrates the absurdities of men as they gather in a kind of urban support group. In 1986, the novel was made into a
film, directed by
Peter Medak, with the screenplay by Michaels, and starring
Roy Scheider,
Harvey Keitel,
Stockard Channing,
Jennifer Jason Leigh and
Frank Langella.