Richard Michelson has had a busy year.
The author, poet, radio host, librettist, former poet laureate of Northampton, and owner of a Northampton art gallery recently released two children’s books, both of which spotlight Jewish historical figures who advanced social causes and left legacies that resonate in modern times.
“I think that, in many ways, it’s almost more important to write for kids than adults, because the stories we hear as children as often the stories that stay with us throughout our lives,” Michelson said. “Especially for children today, who are growing up in this political atmosphere where books are being banned and immigrants are being demonized … I want to present children with stories about people who’ve made a positive difference in the world, so they feel that things are possible for them, too.”
Earlier this year, Michelson also released two other children’s books, plus an audio recording of poetry for adults.
It feels “a little too hectic,” Michelson admitted. “I feel a bit like a jerk complaining that I have four books out in one year, because it’s quite wonderful,” he said.
Michelson’s book, “What Louis Brandeis Knows: A Crusader for Social Justice Becomes a Supreme Court Justice,” illustrated by Stacey Innerst, was released in October. The book profiles Brandeis, the first Jewish justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The book came about because Brandeis University Press had reached out to Michelson in the hope of adding a line of illustrated books to their collection.
“If Brandeis University Press is going to be doing illustrated books, then obviously your first book needs to be on Louis Brandeis,” Michelson said. “Brilliant idea!”
As Michelson researched Brandeis’ work and career, he was “blown away by how prescient and what an amazing person Louis Brandeis was.” That research took place during President Donald Trump’s first administration, and Michelson saw Brandeis as an antidote to “how far this country had fallen” since.
In Michelson’s study of Brandeis, he discovered that Brandeis’ work drew the ire of President William Howard Taft, whom he accused of lying about protecting Alaskan coalfields from drilling. Taft later wrote a letter to a Jewish journalist saying that Brandeis practiced “insidious demagoguery” and called him “a muckraker, an emotionalist for his own purposes, a socialist, prompted by jealousy … a man of infinite cunning … of much power for evil.”
“After October 7 and the huge uptick in antisemitism that we were facing, I’m glad that some publishers are still willing to take risks on my books and [publish them],” Michelson said, “and, certainly, that’s not easy to do in this climate where I have had pushback from both the right and the left.”
His most recent book, “Fanny’s Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week was Born,” which was illustrated by Alyssa Russell, is about Fanny Goldstein, a librarian who created Jewish Book Week in 1925, and the way that her upbringing influenced her work as an adult.
“[She] is what we should be looking at as a role model,” Michelson said.
Goldstein immigrated to Boston with her Russian family when she was 6 years old. As a child, she loved learning about American customs, but she remained steadfastly proud of her Jewish heritage and traditions, even when her teachers dismissed them in favor of her acting “more American.”
Goldstein became the director of the West End Boston Public Library branch at the age of 33. She made it her mission to provide books that reflected the ever-changing demographics of the neighborhood, adding books by Chinese, Syrian and Black authors as those groups moved in.
“She reached across borders,” Michelson said. “… She was someone who wanted to get books in front of people, really wanted to learn about other cultures, championed her own.” And as Goldstein says repeatedly in Michelson’s book, “The more you know about someone’s life, the harder it is not to like them.”
Michelson, too, has personal experience living in a changing neighborhood: he grew up in Brooklyn, which was majority-Jewish when he was born. By the time Michelson left, he was part of one of the few white families in the neighborhood.
Michelson first learned about Goldstein after he won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in 2018, awarded by the Association of Jewish Libraries to “outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.” The association was also presenting an award in Goldstein’s name, and he appreciated that its list of winners included “a number of people who’ve been champions of my books.” With that, he added Goldstein to his ongoing list of ideas of people to write books about — which, as of this writing, has about 150 entries.
Last year, Michelson received a call from the Jewish Book Council, requesting he write a new book for the 100th anniversary of Jewish Book Week. Michelson was worried the turnaround time would be too short, but he, his illustrator, and his publishing company made it happen.
“It’s the fastest book I’ve ever had come out,” he said.
Michelson believes that Goldstein and Brandeis’ stories offer inspiration and relevance for modern times, long after their subjects’ passing.
“Wealth or democracy, you can’t have both,” Michelson said, paraphrasing Brandeis. “That is just so obvious today.”
For more information about Richard Michelson’s books, visit richardmichelson.com.
