Alison Leslie Gold

Alison Leslie Gold is an internationally respected American author whose work has been translated into more than 25 languages. She has written literary fiction as well as books for young people on a wide range of subjects including alcoholic intervention and the Holocaust as experienced by the young.^[1][2] Gold has described herself as a "salvager of other people's stories."^[3]

Alison Leslie Gold, New York City, 2016

Biography

Gold was born on July 13, 1945 in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in New York City.^[4] She was educated at the University of North Carolina, Mexico City College and the New School for Social Research in New York City. She currently shares her time between New York City and a small island in Greece.^[5][6][7]

Gold has three siblings: poet Ted Greenwald,^[8] bed-and-breakfast owner Nancy Greenwald^[9] and film director Maggie Greenwald. Her brother-in-law David Mansfield is a musician and composer. Her son Thor Gold^[10] is a film-maker. Her son’s great-aunt, Mary Jayne Gold, was an American heiress who helped some 2,000 European Jews, artists and intellectuals escape Nazi Germany during World War II. Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, André Breton, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Lipchitz and Otto Fritz Meyerhof were among them.

Adult non-fiction books

• Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped Hide the Frank Family (co-written with Miep Gies), 1987 (Special edition with new material, including new photographs, issued in 2009.)
• Fiet's Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945, 2003
• Love in the Second Act, True Stories of Romance, Midlife and Beyond, 2006
• The Potato Eater, 2015
• Found and Lost: Mittens, Miep, and Shovelfuls of Dirt, 2017, ISBN 978-1-910749-59-3

Adult fiction books

• Clairvoyant, the Imagined Life of Lucia Joyce, 1992
• The Devil's Mistress, the Story of the Woman Who Lived and Died with Hitler, 1997
• The Woman Who Brought Matisse Back from the Dead, 2014
• Not Not a Jew, 2016 (novella)

Books for young people

• Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend, 1997
• A Special Fate, Chiune Sugihara, Hero of the Holocaust, 2000
• Elephant in the Living Room (co-written with Darin Elliott), 2014

Other publications

• Kieu Chinh: Hanoi, Saigon, Hollywood, 1991 (with Nha Ca and Le Van)
• “Evil Will Always Lose”, in O, The Oprah Magazine, 2002
• Lost and Found, #12 in the Cahier Series, Paris/UK, 2012^[11]
• "What I Come Back To", in When We Were Almost Young: Remembering Hydra through War and Bohemians (H.V. Goldman, ed.), 2018.
• Occasional new short pieces of fiction and non-fiction on the author's blog^[12]

Adaptations

• The Attic, television film adaptation of Anne Frank Remembered, 1988^[13]
• The Devil’s Mistress, one-woman stage show, 2007
• Mi Ricordo Anne Frank (“My Friend Anne Frank”), Italian television film adaptation of Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend, 2009

Translations

• Anne Frank Remembered, translated into 23 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean
• Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend, translated into 22 languages
• The Devil’s Mistress, the Story of the Woman Who Lived and Died with Hitler, translated into Greek, Hungarian and Romanian
• Fiet’s Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945, translated into Slovenian

Awards and nominations

• Merit of Educational Distinction, Anti-Defamation League, 1987 (Anne Frank Remembered)
• Best of Best, American Library Association, 1987 (Anne Frank Remembered)
• Christopher Award, 1988 (Anne Frank Remembered)
• National Book Award, 1997 (The Devil’s Mistress)
• Pen West Award, 1997 (The Devil’s Mistress)
• Notable Children’s Book, American Library Association, 1998 (Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend)
• Notable Book for a Global Society, 2001 (A Special Fate)
• Golden Earphone Award, for best Audio Book, 2009 (Anne Frank Remembered)
• Found and Lost: Mittens, Miep, and Shovelfuls of Dirt nominated for the Jewish Book Award

Recognition as a Holocaust chronicler

Alison Leslie Gold’s relationship with and sensitivity to the Holocaust has received special recognition. She is best known for her award-winning, widely celebrated book Anne Frank Remembered, co-written with Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank and rescued Anne’s diary. Miep Gies had been unwilling to tell her story to a larger audience until she was convinced to do so by Gold. Equally, the story of Anne Frank and her childhood friend Hannah (Hanneli) Goslar, who survived the war, had never been completely revealed before Gold urged Hannah to allow her to write Memories of Anne Frank, Reflections of a Childhood Friend.

Among those who have singled out Gold as a protector and chronicler of Holocaust experiences which were never before completely revealed have been Elie Wiesel, who said of Anne Frank Remembered: “Let us give recognition to Alison Gold. Without her and her talent of persuasion, without her writer’s talent, too, this poignant account, vibrating with humanity, would not have been written.”^[14] Isaac Bashevis Singer reflected that Anne Frank Remembered is “Beautifully written by a person who really cares for other human beings. Her simple style hypnotizes the reader. I recommend this book to all people who care about what is happening in the world...” Rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote that Anne Frank Remembered is "a beautiful book, a moving tribute to the extraordinary courage of which ordinary people are capable.” Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., wrote: “We are deeply indebted to Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold for bringing us a glimpse of the day-to-day heroism of those who refused to allow the long shadows of the Holocaust to touch their minds and hearts.” Faiga Levine observed that Anne Frank Remembered “is a significant piece of history, as well as a valuable document of humanity and remarkable courage – especially important now when revisionists again are attempting to deny the Holocaust ever happened.” Simon Wiesenthal remarked on "Alison Leslie Gold’s outstanding writing ability.”

References

External links

• http://www.alisonlesliegold.com/