X

HOME

Books

Authors

Blog

Events

About Us

Contact Us

Get in touch

Books

Authors

Blog

Events

About Us

Contact Us

Get in touch

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

CONTINUE BROWSING

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.

‘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

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

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) FICTION / Satire Humour Education HUMOR / Topic / School & Education FICTION / Humorous FICTION / Epistolary

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.

Related content

Bel Kaufman was an author and schoolteacher. Born in Berlin in 1911,…

Discover

Recommended

Quick view

The Animals in That Country

Laura Jean McKay

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 8 Jul 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Snow Line

RRP: £14.99 Pub date: 8 Jul 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Union of Synchronised Swimmers

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 10 Jun 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida

Clarissa Goenawan

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 13 May 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Higher Ground

RRP: £14.99 Pub date: 8 Apr 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

How We Are Translated

Jessica Gaitán Johannesson

RRP: £12.99 Pub date: 11 Feb 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

A Room Called Earth

RRP: £14.99 Pub date: 14 Jan 2021 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Eighth Life

Nino Haratischvili

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 12 Nov 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida

Clarissa Goenawan

RRP: £12.99 Pub date: 8 Oct 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Baby

Annaleese Jochems

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 10 Sep 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Animals in That Country

Laura Jean McKay

RRP: £14.99 Pub date: 10 Sep 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Among the Lost

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 7 Apr 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Elly

RRP: £12.99 Pub date: 3 Apr 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Blessed Rita

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 12 Mar 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Devil

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 12 Mar 2020 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Invented Lives

Andrea Goldsmith

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 14 Nov 2019 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

Kopp Sisters on the March

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 14 Nov 2019 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Quick view

The Eighth Life

Nino Haratischvili

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 14 Nov 2019 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view