winning the Tony Award

Well, yesterday was pretty amazing, my friends. I got up at 7 and spent the day working like mad - preparing a piece to send to a competion, starting another, and then having a long talk with Isabel about the memoir. She had a very good idea which I will share at some point.

She was preparing the aperitif and I was in my writer's flat checking my email, when I received yet another gift from the universe - an endorsement from the playwright Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize winner and general all-round amazing guy, who quotes my book in one of his. This is what he says about "Finding the Jewish Shakespeare":

"Finding the Jewish Shakespeare brings back to literary life Jacob
Gordin, a protean, prophetic, wickedly funny and absolutely serious
theater artist. Along with him, his great granddaughter Beth
Kaplan resurrects the richness, magnificence and complexity of the
world of Yiddish theater. This is a witty, shrewd and elegant book
which tells a story of vital importance: how an impoverished,
beleaguered immigrant culture begins to speak to itself, begins to
find its agency by understanding itself through art, by finding its
voice. In the process, Kaplan performs a smaller but invaluable
service, namely detailing the life of a marvelous playwright, whose
career makes a great story about making theater."

I nearly wept with joy - took my computer over to Isabel's to share the news, and as I walked onto the terrace, she popped a champagne cork. Pure serendipity, but what a fine moment. I sent this on to a friend who told me I'd won the Tony Award. That's for sure. A reduced version will go on the cover of the paperback. "Witty, shrewd and elegant" - I like that very, very much.

Today, I sent the piece in to the competion and could hardly be pried away from the bench under the magnificent tree on the terrace, reading, working, thinking. I will be sad to leave here tomorrow. It has been extraordinarily fine.

Many thanks to Isabel, for opening her beautiful home and heart.