'You create - like a sculptor'

 

“I think most serious writers, certainly in the modern period, use their own lives or the lives of people close to them or lives they have heard about as the raw material for their creativity.” – Chaim Potok

Born in New York City on this date in 1929, Potok’s very first book, The Chosen, ended up on The New York Times’ bestseller list for 39 consecutive weeks and sold more than 3.4 million copies. Not a bad first effort. Ultimately – up to his death in 2002 – he would write 20 books, many plays and dozens of essays.

 

Raised in a strict Jewish household and encouraged to read and study only orthodox Jewish writings, he said knew he wanted to take a different writing path after reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager.  He said Waugh was lifelong writing hero and role model after that. 

 

Potok produced his first fiction at the age of 16 and at 17 submitted his first story to The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work and softening “the sting” of rejection.   Less than 10 years later he had his first book on the market.   

 

Also an artist, Potok permeated his writings with the language of art.  One critic called him "The Michaelangelo of the written word."  He wryly answered that the only time he felt like Michaelangelo was when he was doing revisions.   

 

“I think the hardest part of writing is revising,” he said.  “A novelist, like a sculptor, has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it.”