Up the Down Staircase

the timeless, bestselling novel about the joys, frustrations, and hilarity of teaching
Bel Kaufman

‘Shot through with despair and hopefulness, violence and levity, bureaucratic inanity and a blizzard of official memorandums so mind-bendingly illogical as to seem almost Kafkaesque … A stunningly accurate portrait of life in an urban school.’

Margalit Fox, The New York Times

‘The most excellent and useful portrait of a[n] … American teacher’s life that we are likely to have for a long time.’

Life

View all reviews

‘[Kaufman] fully grasped the thankless position of the teachers left to impart knowledge and instil citizenship in the face of awesome obstacles … [T]he most enduring account we have of teachers’ lives — not naïve, not exculpatory, but empathetic and aware.’

Samuel G. Freedman, The New Yorker

Our reissue of Bel Kaufman’s bestselling 1964 novel timelessly depicts the shambolic joys and myriad frustrations of a young teacher. With an introduction by Diane Ravitch.

Sylvia Barrett arrives at New York City’s Calvin Coolidge High fresh from earning literature degrees at Hunter College and eager to shape young minds. Instead she encounters broken windows, a lack of supplies, a stifling bureaucracy, and students with no interest in Chaucer. Her bumpy yet ultimately rewarding journey is depicted through an extraordinary collection of correspondence: sternly worded yet nonsensical administrative memos, furtive notes of wisdom from teacher to teacher, ‘polio consent slips’, and student homework assignments that unwittingly speak from the heart.

Up the Down Staircase stands as the seminal novel of a beleaguered public school system that is redeemed by teachers who love to teach and students who long to be recognised. It is poignant, devastating, laugh-out-loud funny, and — in our current moment of debate around the future of education — more relevant than ever.

Margalit Fox, The New York Times

‘The most excellent and useful portrait of a[n] … American teacher’s life that we are likely to have for a long time.’

Life

View all reviews

BUY EBOOK

Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 198mm × 129mm

Extent:384pp

ISBN (13):9781912854615

RRP:£9.99

Pub date:10 Dec 2020

Rights Held: UK & Commonwealth

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Bel Kaufman

Bel Kaufman was an author and schoolteacher. Born in Berlin in 1911, she spent her childhood in Odessa and emigrated with her family to the Bronx when she was twelve. Her grandfather was the Yiddish humourist Sholem Aleichem. In addition to Up the Down Staircase, she is also the author of the novel Love, Etc. She died in 2014.

Brothers and Ghosts

Khuê Ph?m

RRP: £10.99 Pub date: 11 Apr 2024 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Manny and the Baby

Varaidzo

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 11 Apr 2024 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Keeping in Touch

Anjali Joseph

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 10 Apr 2024 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Extinction of Irena Rey

Jennifer Croft

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 14 Mar 2024 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Bad Cree

Jessica Johns

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 8 Feb 2024 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Minor Bodies

Jonathan Bazzi

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 2 Feb 2024 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Bird Life

Anna Smaill

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 9 Nov 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Gunflower

Laura Jean McKay

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 12 Oct 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Sisters in Arms

Shida Bazyar

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 12 Oct 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Juja

Nino Haratischvili

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

My Soul Twin

Nino Haratischvili

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Pink Slime

Fernanda Trías

RRP: £12.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Birth Canal

Dias Novita Wuri

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 13 Jul 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Dream Builders

Oindrila Mukherjee

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 13 Jul 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Watersong

Clarissa Goenawan

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 8 Jun 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

What I’d Rather Not Think About

Jente Posthuma

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 8 Jun 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Mater 2-10

Hwang Sok-yong

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 11 May 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

No Season but the Summer

Matilda Leyser

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 13 Apr 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

HOME

Books

Authors

Blog

Events

About Us

Contact Us

Books

Authors

Blog

Events

About Us

Contact Us

We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

NO ITEMS

LOG IN