NEW YORK (AP) β The author of “Up the Down Staircase” has died in New York City. Bel Kaufman was 103.
Her daughter, Thea Goldstine, says she died Friday at her Manhattan home after a brief illness.
Kaufman was a middle-age teacher and single mother in the mid-1960s when her autobiographical novel became a surprise best-seller. Even the title of Kaufman’s book became a tell-all label, shorthand for all the senseless rules students and educators could never quite follow.
“Up the Down Staircase” is a scrapbook of letters, notes and memos. It follows a few months in the life of an idealistic young teacher at Calvin Coolidge High School.
