Jack Engelhard Bio/Profile

Page to Screen to CANNES-Jack Engelhard's "Escape From Mount Moriah"

(The latest news, as of April 17, 2011)


"My Father, Joe," adapted from my memoir "Escape From Mount Moriah," has been selected for screening at CANNES, Europe's most prestigious Film Festival, equal to the Academy Awards. The date -- May 18. This is quite a coup for the Canadian film-maker, whose "little film that could" has already won numerous other film festival awards worldwide.

The book "Escape From Mount Moriah" has been awarded top prize on EXCELLENCE from the Independent Publishers Association.

What's the book about, as reflected in "My Father, Joe?" It's about a kid who survives Europe's genocide to discover a new continent -- America!

Yes, America, the land of second acts and second chances.

Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of eight or more books, including the international bestseller "Indecent Proposal," which was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engehard's Works can be found on Amazon and on his website www.jackengelhard.com

http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Mount-Moriah-Memoirs-Refugee/dp/0967407486/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303061925&sr=1-1


Jack Engelhard is an American novelist, born in Toulouse, France. He is best known for his moral dilemma concepts as expressed in such novels as THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE and INDECENT PROPSAL. THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE is an up to date newsroom thriller that takes its cue from the temptation of King David. The critic Letha Hadady has termed this novel "a towering literary achievement."

INDECENT PROPOSAL, originally published in 1988, was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The novel – “what would you do for a million dollars?” – has earned a place as a cultural phenomenon for its theme of temptation owing to the fame of the book and the subsequent movie. New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin referred to INDECENT PROPOSAL as “powerfully seductive.”

Critics were generally kind, even effusive, about the novel (“Is this book fun to read? You betcha.” – New York Times), but the movie, a box office smash domestically and internationally, was scorned by some critics for alleged political incorrectness. Feminists were especially critical. The work underwent changes from page to screen. As noted in Wikipedia, the movie “shares thematic elements with the novel that inspired it [but] the underlying plot is entirely different.” The novel [as opposed to the movie] is not “merely a game of money but rather an extension of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Engelhard’s writings have been praised for their “moral intensity” (author Michael Foster) and his writing style has been acclaimed as “vivid, cool and muscular.” (Philadelphia Inquirer.)

His latest published novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, is a sexual/political thriller “ripped from the headlines and the Bible.” The novel first appeared as a 12 part serial on Amazon.com – Amazon’s first serialization of a novel. THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, a newsroom drama that features conflicts within the newsroom as pertains to politics, war and culture, has since been released in paperback. (Engelhard’s personal experiences in the newsroom date back to his newspaper years and to his stint as editor at KYW ALL NEWS RADIO, Philadelphia, the forerunner, and some say the inspiration, for Ted Turner’s round-the clock CNN.)

Engelhard’s other works include THE HORSEMEN, a nonfiction account of thoroughbred racing behind the scenes, ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH, a memoir of growing up in Montreal as a refugee from Hitler’s France, DEADLY DECEPTION, a novel about a mystical craps shooter, and THE DAYS OF THE BITTER END, which takes place before, during and after November 22, 1963 and, through the art of fact and fiction, tracks the generation that rose and fell with JFK. Much of this novel is focused on a comedian who won fame as JFK’s most right-on impersonator, so that “two Kennedys died that day in Dallas.”

Engelhard recently completed SLOT ATTENDANT, a novel about a bestselling author who falls from grace and finds himself enduring hard times. Jay Leonard, the hero, works as a lowly slot attendant in an Atlantic City casino as he mounts his comeback, which may or may not come. He continues to write, to dream and to fight through a whirlwind of rejections. The first two chapters of this novel appear as an introduction on Engelhard’s website http://www.jackengelhard.com/.

Engelhard, who lives in New Jersey, began his writing career as a journalist. He wrote for a series of newspapers in South Jersey, which led to a 10-year stint as an op-ed columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has been published in The New York Times, most famously his op-ed humor classic “The Company Man,” published Feb. 6, 1982.

Today, his journalism is syndicated internationally. Alongside the blogs at his own site (http://www.jackengelhard.com/) and at Amazon, his commentaries are carried by israelnationalnews.com and gather.com; he writes a weekly column on politics and culture for the Jewish Times of South Jersey. He often writes about his personal triumphs and failings and of the absurdities that afflict our daily lives. Much of his journalism is picked up by various sources on the Web.

Engelhard, then an infant, escaped the place of his birth, Toulouse, when the Nazis invaded France. The Engelhard family, father, Noah, mother, Ida, sister, Sarah, escaped over the Pyrenees to Spain with the United States a hoped-for destination. However, the doors to America were shut. The family managed to gain entry to Canada, where they lived for some 10 years before finally gaining permanent residence and citizenship in the United States.

Back in France, Engelhard’s father saw the Holocaust coming. At that time in Toulouse, the Engelhards were a wealthy and prominent family. Industrialists, educators, politicians, rabbis, ministers and priests were among their friends. At the invasion, Noah took steps to save his own family through contacts with the French Resistance. He is also credited with saving the lives of many other families whose lives were at risk. All that cost money and when the family came West, they arrived broke.

Jack Engelhard’s ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH tells the story of a young man, himself, trying to find a place in a New World. Much of it is told with humor. Jack Engelhard, firmly established as an American author, served as an American volunteer in the IDF. He holds a ranking belt in Israeli martial arts, Krav Maga.

Tributes:

For THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE: “A towering literary achievement – we love it, every tense, fascinating minute.” Author Letha Hadady.

For INDECENT PROPOSAL: “Precise, almost clinical language.” The New York Times, Sunday Review.

THE DAYS OF THE BITTER END: “The writing style is out of this world. I know that I’m in the presence of literary genius.” John W. Cassell.

ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH: “Engelhard’s literary gifts shine.” Literature professor Eugene Narrett.

THE HORSEMEN: “May be the best, sharpest, most vivid portrait of life around the racetrack ever written.” New York Post’s Ray Kerrison writing for National Star.