# Daniel Fuchs > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Daniel_Fuchs > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Daniel_Fuchs.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Fuchs > Source revision: 1298222305 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Short description|American writer (1909–1993)}} {{for|the German artist|Daniel and Geo Fuchs}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2010}} '''Daniel Fuchs''' (June 25, 1909 – July 26, 1993) was an American screenwriter, fiction writer, and essayist.{{cite book | last1 =Chametzky | first1 =Jules | last2 =Felstiner| first2 =John| last3 =Flanzbaum | first3 =Hilene | last4 = Hellerstein| first4 =Kathryn| title =Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology| publisher = [W.W. Norton & Company](/source/W.W._Norton_%26_Company)| date =2001 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/jewishamericanli00jule/page/501 501] | url =https://archive.org/details/jewishamericanli00jule | url-access =registration | isbn =9780393048094 }} ==Biography== Daniel Fuchs was born to a [Jewish](/source/American_Jews) family{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0byBwAAQBAJ&q=fuchs|first=John|last=Cones|title=Motion Picture Biographies: The Hollywood Spin on Historical Figures|pages=60|date=April 2015|publisher=Algora |isbn=9781628941166}} on the [Lower East Side](/source/Lower_East_Side), [Manhattan](/source/Manhattan), but his family moved to [Williamsburg, Brooklyn](/source/Williamsburg%2C_Brooklyn) while Fuchs was an infant. He wrote three early novels, published by the [Vanguard Press](/source/Vanguard_Press) — ''Summer in Williamsburg'' (1934), ''Homage to Blenholt'' (1936), and ''Low Company'' (1937). The earlier two of these depicted Jewish life in Williamsburg; the last focused on various ethnic types in Brighton Beach. A single-volume edition of these was published by Basic Books in 1965 under the title "Three Novels."{{Cite book|url=http://lccn.loc.gov/61013511|lccn = 61013511|title = Three Novels: Summer in Williamsburg, Homage to Blenholt [and] Low Company|last1 = Fuchs|first1 = Daniel|year = 1961|publisher = Basic Books}} Subsequent one-volume editions include ''The Brooklyn Novels,{{Cite book|url=http://lccn.loc.gov/2006023170|lccn=2006023170|title=The Brooklyn Novels|isbn=9781574232103|last1=Fuchs|first1=Daniel|year=2006}}'' with an introduction by the novelist [Jonathan Lethem](/source/Jonathan_Lethem), published in 2006 by [Black Sparrow Books](/source/Black_Sparrow_Books), an imprint since 2002 of [David R. Godine, Publisher](/source/David_R._Godine%2C_Publisher). ''Homage to Blenholt'' concerns a well-meaning tenement ''schlemiel'' who hopes to escape poverty via various inventions and get-rich quick schemes. Fuchs also wrote [short stories](/source/Short_story) and personal essays, mainly for ''[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker)''. When he was 26, he moved to [Los Angeles, California](/source/Los_Angeles%2C_California) to work on films. Fuchs wrote the screenplay for the crime [noir](/source/Film_noir) ''[Criss Cross](/source/Criss_Cross_(film))'' (1949). He also penned the psychodrama ''[Panic in the Streets](/source/Panic_in_the_Streets_(film))'' (1950), which was directed by [Elia Kazan](/source/Elia_Kazan). In 1995, ''Criss Cross'' was remade as ''The Underneath'' by director [Steven Soderbergh](/source/Steven_Soderbergh), with credit given to Fuchs. ''[Love Me or Leave Me](/source/Love_Me_or_Leave_Me_(film))'', a biopic about the torch singer [Ruth Etting](/source/Ruth_Etting), which won Fuchs an [Oscar](/source/Academy_Award) for [Best Story](/source/Academy_Award_for_Best_Story) in 1955, featured a performance by [James Cagney](/source/James_Cagney) in the role of a [Chicago](/source/Chicago) hoodlum and [Doris Day](/source/Doris_Day) as the beleaguered songstress. Fuchs' Hollywood novel, ''West of the Rockies'', was published in 1971, and in 1979 appeared a collection of mostly earlier-written short stories, ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint.'' ''The Golden West: Hollywood Stories,'' a collection of Fuchs's fiction and essays about Hollywood, was published in 2005 by Black Sparrow Books. Fuchs died in Los Angeles.{{when?|date=June 2025}} ==Critique== [Irving Howe](/source/Irving_Howe) wrote of Fuchs for [Commentary Magazine](/source/Commentary_Magazine) in 1948 that "he showed such a rich gift for fictional portraiture of Jewish life in the American city that, given sustained work and growth of mind, he might have written its still-uncreated comedie humaine. After reading Fuchs' work one wonders: What was the source of his talent and the cause of his silence, and, perhaps more important, what was the relationship between his talent and his silence?"[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/daniel-fuchs--escape-from-williamsburg-br-em-the-fate-of-talent-in-america-em--594 "The fate of Talent In America" Commentary Magazine] [John Updike](/source/John_Updike) said, "Nobody else writes like Daniel Fuchs. I think of him as a natural—a poet who never had to strain after a poetic effect, a magician who made magic look almost too easy."(New Yorker Magazine, 1971; cf. Updikes', 'Picked-Up Pieces', 1975) ==Works== ===Novels=== Fuchs's early novels were published by the [Vanguard Press](/source/Vanguard_Press); he was represented by the [Maxim Lieber](/source/Maxim_Lieber) Literary Agency, and handled by agent [Elizabeth Nowell](/source/Elizabeth_Nowell) (who later became [Thomas Wolfe](/source/Thomas_Wolfe)'s exclusive agent{{relevance?|date=June 2025}}). {{cite book | editor-last = Kennedy | editor-first = Richard S. | title = Beyond love and loyalty: the letters of Thomas Wolfe and Elizabeth Nowell | publisher = University of North Carolina Press Books | year = 1983 | pages = xii | isbn = 978-0807815458 | url = https://archive.org/details/beyondloveloyalt0000wolf | url-access = registration }} * ''Summer in Williamsburg'' (1934) * ''Homage to Blenholt'' (1936) * ''Low Company'' (1937) * ''Three Novels'' (1965): omnibus of earlier novels * ''West of the Rockies'' (1971) ===Collections=== * ''Stories'', with [Jean Stafford](/source/Jean_Stafford), [John Cheever](/source/John_Cheever), and [William Maxwell](/source/William_Keepers_Maxwell_Jr.) (1956) * ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' (1979) * ''The Golden West: Hollywood Stories'' (2005) === Scripts === * ''[The Hard Way](/source/The_Hard_Way_(1943_film))'' (1943) * ''[Between Two Worlds](/source/Between_Two_Worlds_(1944_film))'' (1944) * ''[The Gangster](/source/The_Gangster_(1947_film))'' (1947), based on his own novel ''Low Company'' *''[Hollow Triumph](/source/Hollow_Triumph)'' (1948) * ''[Criss Cross](/source/Criss_Cross_(film))'' (1949) * ''[Panic in the Streets](/source/Panic_in_the_Streets_(film))'' (1950) * ''[Storm Warning](/source/Storm_Warning_(1951_film))'' (1951) * ''[The Human Jungle](/source/The_Human_Jungle_(film))'' (1954) * ''[Love Me Or Leave Me](/source/Love_Me_or_Leave_Me_(film))'' (1955) * ''[Jeanne Eagels](/source/Jeanne_Eagels_(film))'' (1957) * ''[Interlude](/source/Interlude_(1957_film))'' (1957) ===Short fiction=== {| class="wikitable" |+ |- ! Title !! Publication !! Collected in |- | "Where Al Capone Grew Up" || ''[The New Republic](/source/The_New_Republic)'' (September 9, 1931) || - |- | "The Village by the Sea" || ''Opinion'' (April 11, 1932) || - |- | "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" || ''[Story](/source/Story_(magazine))'' (December 1933) || - |- | "Dream City, or The Drugged Lake" || ''Cinema Arts'' (Sumer 1937) || ''The Golden West: Hollywood Stories'' |- | "My Sister Who Is Famous" || ''[Collier's](/source/Collier's)'' (September 4, 1937) || - |- | "Crap Game" || ''[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker)'' (December 25, 1937) || - |- | "The Amazing Mystery at Storick, Dorschi, Pflaumer, Inc." || ''[Scribner's Magazine](/source/Scribner's_Magazine)'' (February 1938) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Last Fall" || ''[The Saturday Evening Post](/source/The_Saturday_Evening_Post)'' (March 5, 1938) || - |- | "Such a Nice Spring Day" || ''Collier's'' (April 23, 1938) || - |- | "Shun All Care" || ''[Harper's Bazaar](/source/Harper's_Bazaar)'' (May 1938) || - |- | "A Hollywood Diary" || ''The New Yorker'' (August 6, 1938) || rowspan=2| ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "The Apathetic Bookie Joint" || ''The New Yorker'' (August 20, 1938) |- | "Getaway Day" || ''Collier's'' (September 10, 1938) || - |- | "People on a Planet" || ''The New Yorker'' (September 24, 1938) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Lucky Loser" || ''Collier's'' (October 15, 1938) || - |- | "Kinds of Laughter"
aka "A Matter of Pride" || ''Collier's'' (October 22, 1938) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Life Sentence" || ''Collier's'' (November 19, 1938) || - |- | "Give Hollywood a Chance" || ''[Esquire](/source/Esquire_(magazine))'' (December 1938) || - |- | "Fortune and Men's Eyes" || ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (December 10, 1938) || - |- | "A Girl Like Cele" || ''[Redbook](/source/Redbook)'' (April 1939) || - |- | "The Woman in Buffalo" || ''Esquire'' (April 1939) || - |- | "The Man from Mars" || ''The New Yorker'' (April 8, 1939) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "If a Man Answers, Hang Up" || ''Collier's'' (April 22, 1939) || - |- | "Crazy Over Pigeons" || ''Collier's'' (April 29, 1939) || - |- | "Not to the Swift" || ''Collier's'' (May 13, 1939) || - |- | "Florida"
aka "Toilers of the Screen" || ''Collier's'' (July 8, 1939) || ''The Golden West: Hollywood Stories'' |- | "The Hosiery Shop" || ''Harper's Bazaar'' (September 1939) || rowspan=2| ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Love in Brooklyn" || ''The New Yorker'' (September 2, 1939) |- | "The Politician" || ''The New Republic'' (October 11, 1939) || - |- | "All or Nothing" || ''Collier's'' (October 14, 1939) || - |- | "The Morose Policeman" || ''The New Yorker'' (October 14, 1939) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "No Regrets" || ''This Week'' (January 21, 1940) || - |- | "A Mink Coat Each Morning" || ''Collier's'' (January 27, 1940) || - |- | "There's Always Honolulu" || ''This Week'' (January 21, 1940) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Pug in an Opera Hat" || ''Collier's'' (March 23, 1940) || - |- | "The First Smell of Spring, and Brooklyn" || ''[Mademoiselle](/source/Mademoiselle_(magazine))'' (April 1940) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Daring Young Man" || ''Collier's'' (August 24, 1940) || - |- | "All the Tricks" || ''Collier's'' (September 14, 1940) || - |- | "The Sun Goes Down" || ''The New Yorker'' (September 14, 1940) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Racing Is a Business" || ''Collier's'' (October 5, 1940) || - |- | "The Language of Love" || ''The New Yorker'' (December 14, 1940) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "The Fabulous Rubio" || ''Collier's'' (January 4, 1941) || - |- | "Strange Things Happen in Brooklyn" || ''Collier's'' (February 1, 1941) || - |- | "Loew's Kings, the Chink's, and a Ride Home" || ''The New Yorker'' (April 5, 1941) || rowspan=3| ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Okay, Mr. Pappendas, Okay" || ''[The Southern Review](/source/The_Southern_Review)'' (Spring 1942) |- | "A Clean, Quiet House" || ''The New Yorker'' (May 30, 1942) |- | "The Long Green" || ''[Cosmopolitan](/source/Cosmopolitan_(magazine))'' (February 1951) || - |- | "Man in the Middle of the Ocean" || ''The New Yorker'' (July 11, 1953) || ''Stories'' |- | "Ecossaise, Berceuse, Polonaise" || ''The New Yorker'' (August 1, 1953) || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Twilight in Southern California" || ''The New Yorker'' (October 3, 1953) || rowspan=2| ''Stories'' |- | "The Golden West" || ''The New Yorker'' (July 10, 1954) |- | "Ivanov's 'The Adventures of a Fakir'" || ''[Commentary](/source/Commentary_(magazine))'' (June 1975) || rowspan=2| ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' |- | "Triplicate" || ''The Apathetic Bookie Joint'' (1979) |- |} == Awards == * 1980: [National Jewish Book Award](/source/National_Jewish_Book_Award) for The Apathetic Bookie Joint{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners|title=Past Winners|website=Jewish Book Council|language=en|access-date=January 19, 2020}} == References == {{Reflist}} == External links == *[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/fuchs-homagetoblenholt.php Homage to Blenholt: The Daniel Fuchs Papers] The Ohio State University Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection *{{IMDb name|0297190}} {{AcademyAwardBestStory 1940–1956}} {{Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Musical}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Daniel}} Category:1909 births Category:1993 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:American male screenwriters Category:Best Story Academy Award winners Category:Jewish American novelists Category:Writers from Los Angeles Category:American male short story writers Category:American male essayists Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:20th-century American essayists Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Screenwriters from New York (state) Category:Screenwriters from California Category:People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn Category:Writers from Brooklyn Category:People from the Lower East Side Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:20th-century American Jews --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Daniel Fuchs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Fuchs) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Fuchs?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.