Old Neighborhood (22 page)

Corman was born on November 28, 1935, in New York City. His parents were working-class residents of the Bronx, and they divorced when Corman was a young child. Corman moved with his mother and sister into the apartment of an aunt and uncle, who were both deaf mutes. Complicated family dynamics and the challenges of communication would come to be prominent themes in Corman’s later work as a writer.

Corman attended DeWitt Clinton High School and then New York University, from which he graduated in 1956. After a short career in magazine publishing, Corman began writing humorous pieces for small magazines. He spent more than ten years cobbling together an income as a freelancer before completing his first novel,
Oh, God!
, in 1971. The story of a writer who becomes a messenger for God after an interview on Madison Avenue,
Oh, God!
was made into a hit film starring George Burns in 1977. Next came
The Bust-Out King
(1977), a caper novel, quickly followed by one of Corman’s best-known works,
Kramer vs. Kramer
(1977). The novel depicts the toll divorce can take on parents and their children, and helped change the landscape of divorce and custody in America. The courts, and divorcing spouses, began to view divorced men’s participation in their children’s lives more positively. The novel’s film adaptation, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, was released to overwhelming acclaim, and went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  A French language stage adaptation of the novel,
Kramer vs. Kramer
, by Didier Caron and Stéphane Boutet, was produced in Paris in 2010 and subsequently played in other French cities and in Geneva, Switzerland. Corman then wrote his own stage adaptation of the novel, which has been optioned for a Broadway production, and for productions in several foreign countries.

Following
Kramer vs. Kramer
, Corman continued to explore themes of families in turmoil.
The Old Neighborhood
(1980) follows the life of a man whose ambivalence about success brings him back to the city streets where he was raised. His fifth novel,
50
(1987), examines a middle-aged man whose life falls apart, leading him to unexpected contentment.
The Big Hype
(1992) skewers the publishing industry and celebrity culture, while
Prized Possessions
(1991) deals with the consequences of being a victim of date rape for a young college student and her family.
A Perfect Divorce
(2004) tells the story of a divorced couple struggling to co-parent their troubled teenage son. Corman’s most recent novel,
The Boyfriend from Hell
(2006), follows a young, single journalist as she embarks on a new relationship that turns out to be more sinister than she could have imagined.

After achieving success as a novelist, Corman noticed that a cherished basketball court in his old neighborhood had been torn down. He donated funds to build a replacement and this served as a catalyst for the creation of the City Parks Foundation, now a multimillion dollar nonprofit organization that creates and funds parks programs throughout New York City. He has served on its board of directors since the foundation’s inception in 1989.

Corman continues to write novels, plays, and non-fiction.

A young Corman in the 1940s with his mother and sister, Jackie.

Corman’s aunt and uncle, Anne and Moses Cohn, in whose apartment he lived with his mother and sister while growing up in the 1940s.

Corman with his cousin, Selma, in the 1940s.

Corman, age twenty-six, on a snowy day in Central Park. He worked in magazine publishing at the time.

Corman with his son Matthew in 1972. (Photo by Bill Powers.)

The movie poster for
Oh, God!
The film was released in 1977 and was a hit for the studio and for George Burns, who played God.

The movie poster for
Kramer vs. Kramer
. The film, which was released in 1979, earned Oscars for both Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, as well the awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director.

Corman with his wife, Judy, and sons, Nicholas and Matthew, in 1983. Corman was never divorced. He and Judy were married for thirty-seven years, until her passing in 2004. (Photo by Jill Krementz.)

Corman, who suggested the City Parks Foundation create a track & field program for New York City children, with some of the 2,000 citywide participants in 2012. (Photo by Alan Roche.)

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