William Baker and Jeanette Roberts Shumaker offer a view of the vast range of a fearless, fascinating writer. The book deals with Kops’s writing of memoir, novels, stage and radio plays and poems, and examines themes such as Jewish identity, aging, family, sex and mental illness. Kops sees the latter as a form of imprisonment, most notably in his 1981 play, Ezra, which has poetic-genius-turned-wartime-antisemitic-propagandist Ezra Pound ranting inside a literal cage. Kops himself was institutionalised for a period, when he wrote poetry that Baker and Shumaker describe as a means of portraying characters who 'escape their pain through destructive self-delusions'. Delusion is a word that often occurs in discussions of Kops’s prolific output and, in this regard, Baker and Shumaker quote one critic’s observation that reality for Kops is 'one long, manic vaudeville act'. Kops can certainly switch rapidly — from prose to poetry, fantasy to realism, theme to theme — and not always waiting for his audience to keep pace. All is underpinned by a sharp-edged humour bred in the harsh but warm conditions of his beloved East End. And, even though he has moved some way from The Hamlet of Stepney Green, his first play, it is as part of the 'new wave' of 1950s dramatists along with fellow Jewish writers Harold Pinter and Arnold Wesker, that his reputation rests. Baker and Shumaker’s book is a useful guide into the much broader territory that Kops inhabits.

The Jewish Chronicle, USA

Baker and Shumaker do admirable work in tracing the complex interplay of personal and socio-historical causes contributing to what in other hands might appear a dangerously melodramatic story of early promise, tragic decline, and eventual renewal. . . .[T]here is much to applaud in this tenacious, affirmative and ground-breaking study of an undervalued writer.

Style

In Bernard Kops: Fantasist, London Jew, Apocalyptic Humorist, William Baker and Jeanette Roberts Shumaker offer an astute, comprehensive and thorough literary biography of the prolific post-war playwright, novelist and poet Bernard Kops, a contemporary of Harold Pinter. Baker and Shumaker's writing is infused with admiration and affection, both for Kops himself and for an entire community – the one-time vibrant Jewish immigrant community in London's East End in the 1950s and 60s – which now only exists in people's memories. This is, in a sense, an extended elegy: a book that mourns the dissolution of an East End defined by defying poverty, prejudice, and the grief of the Holocaust. At the same time, the book also celebrates the longevity of Kops (still writing successful plays in his 80s) and of this very community. . . .Baker and Shumaker cleverly interweave historical material, Kops' own autobiographical writings, his wide array of fictional, dramatic and poetic works, criticism of those works and various interviews, to create a colorful, humorous and candid portrait of this controversial figure and his life's work. They dexterously maintain throughout a balance between Kops' individual history and the broader contexts of his artistic, national, and religious affiliations, oscillating continually between the personal and the public, the idiosyncratic and the representative. . . .Bernard Kops: Fantasist, London Jew, Apocalyptic Humorist fills the reader with deference for the ghosts of the past, nostalgia for a lost era, and hope for a future in the making. It champions the recuperative powers of humanity and the value of literary craftsmanship.

Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory

Bernard Kops: Fantasist, London Jew, Apocalyptic Humorist is a welcome addition to the small but growing number of critical works on twentieth-century Anglo-Jewish writers. Indeed, this is the first book-length study of the works of Bernard Kops, the understudied contemporary playwright, poet, and novelist. . . .Bernard Kops: Fantasist, London Jew, Apocalyptic Humorist should be placed. . . .as an influential analysis of one of the twentieth-century Britain's most prolific, influential, and outspoken artists. Written by Knowledgeable scholars and enthusiastic admirers of Kops's work, it is both a comprehensive introduction and a useful historial guide to Kops's growing corpus.

Comparative Drama

Considered as a study aid, the book is certainly comprehensive. Organized by theme, it provides thorough descriptions of a fair proportion of Kop's work, much of which . . . is currently out of print.

Times Literary Supplement

William Baker and Jeanette Roberts Shumaker’s, Bernard Kops: Fantasist, London Jew, Apocalyptic Humorist is the first full-length study of a writer who is perhaps best known for his drama, but has also written poetry and novels. The authors make a convincing argument for reassessing Kops’s historical importance within the 1950s ‘new wave’ drama, seeking to move him out of the peripheral position ascribed to him by most studies of the period.... The book provides a fascinating account of Jewish life in London and the various subcultures within London literary life during the 1940s and 1950s. It is arranged in seven thematic chapters which discuss all aspects of Kops’s writing simultaneously, while subsections cater for the reader specifically interested in his drama. Kops’s less well-known plays are also discussed throughout the volume, but of particular interest is the chapter ‘Sex and Politics,’ which looks at reasons behind the poor reception given to some of his anti-nuclear war plays, including The Dream of Peter Mann [1960] as well as Kops’s developing political activism during this period.

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