Family Happiness (32 page)

No kite, of course, had been given to her to fly, but she felt as excited and grateful as if it had.

A Biography of Laurie Colwin

Laurie Colwin (1944–1992) was an American novelist and short story author, most famous for her writings on cooking and upper-middle-class urban life.

Colwin was born on June 14 in Manhattan, New York, to Estelle and Peter Colwin. She spent her childhood in Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island; Philadelphia; and Chicago. During her time in Philadelphia she attended Cheltenham High School and was inducted into its hall of fame in 1999. After graduation she continued her education at Bard College, the New School, and Columbia University.

In 1965 Colwin began her career working for Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, a literary agency in New York City. From there she went on to work at several leading book publishers, holding editorial positions at Viking Press, Pantheon Books, G.P. Putnam's Sons, and E. P. Dutton. Most notably during this time, Colwin worked closely with Isaac Bashevis Singer, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature, editing and translating his works.

An aspiring writer all her life, Colwin sold her first short story to the
New Yorker
in 1969 at the age of twenty-five—an auspicious start. Over the course of the next few years, her work appeared in
Harper's Magazine
,
Allure
,
Redbook
,
Mademoiselle
, and
Playboy
. Many of these early stories were included in a collection,
Passion and Affect
, which was published in 1974.

Food and the act of cooking played an influential role in Colwin's life from early on. During the Columbia University campus uprisings of 1968, she famously cooked for student protestors occupying various buildings. “Someone put a piece of adhesive on the sleeve of my sweatshirt that read:
KITCHEN/COLWIN
,” she wrote in
Home Cooking
, published in 1988. “This, I feel, marked me for life.”

As Colwin began crafting her short stories, she also became a regular food columnist for
Gourmet
magazine, and many of her columns were anthologized in
Home Cooking
. The release of this work secured a fan base of up-and-coming casual gourmands who loved Colwin's unfussy, personal style and who remain devoted to her long after her death. Later in her life, even as she wrote about privileged Manhattanites, Colwin continued to volunteer and cook for homeless shelters in New York.

By the late seventies, Laurie Colwin was writing full time. Her first novel,
Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object
, was published in 1975, and in 1977 Colwin received the prestigious O. Henry Award for short fiction. Her second novel,
Happy All the Time
, was received with much critical acclaim in 1978. By the time
The Lone Pilgrim
—a short story collection—and the novel
Family Happiness
were published in 1981 and 1982, respectively, Colwin had solidified her reputation as a writer to watch. She became known for her entertaining wit and wonderfully complex protagonists, whom readers understood immediately.

Colwin's story collection
Another Marvelous Thing
was published in 1986, and the next year, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1990 she published
Goodbye Without Leaving
, the last novel that would go to press before her untimely death.

Laurie Colwin died of an aortic aneurysm in her Manhattan home on October 24, 1992, at the age of forty-eight. She was survived by her husband, Juris Jurjevics, a founder of Soho Press, and their daughter, Rosa.

In 1993
A Big Storm Knocked It Over
and
More Home Cooking
were published posthumously, serving as final invocations of Colwin's distinct voice and the New York characters she loved.

The author's parents, Estelle Colwin (née Wolfson) and Peter Colwin.

The Wolfsons, Colwin's mother's family, lived in Philadelphia and congregated there for the holidays. Colwin (at front), her older sister, Leslie (at upper left), and their father, Peter, pose by a statue in Rittenhouse Square, Thanksgiving, c. 1950.

Colwin at age seven or eight. As a child and teen, she did print modeling work at her mother's urging.

Colwin receiving an award at Ronkonkoma Grade School.

Colwin as a teenager. Childhood friend Willard Spiegelman, a writer and professor, recalls that Colwin often held “salons” in her bedroom.

By the time she was a teenager, Colwin had developed a keen interest in art. Here, she sketches with charcoal, obviously impressing her companion.

Colwin as a counselor at Camp Burr Oaks in Wisconsin. She had also attended as a camper in earlier years.

Colwin's Cheltenham High School graduation photo, 1962.

After graduating from high school, Colwin traveled to Europe by boat. Her mother (at right), saw her off at the dock.