Dear Friends,
I first knew Jerry as Dr. Lowenstein, when I accompanied each of my parents to many visits to his office and joined them at their bedsides during hospitalizations. Over the years, while medicine became more consolidated, specialized, and harried, he was ever attentive and patient; he listened. He saw them both—first my mother in 1991 and then my father in 2003—out of the world with sensitivity and grace. His kindness and thoughtfulness infused every aspect of his practice. He was a remarkable physician, and I revered him.
I then came to know him as a writer, when he contacted me many months after my father’s death. I was between in-house book editor jobs, and he wanted advice on his first novel. We worked together over the course of a year to bring Henderson’s Equation to its final draft, which would, indeed, be accepted by a publisher. As Jerry and I toasted to its success over lunch, knowing of his role as nonfiction editor of Bellevue Literary Review, I took a flyer and pitched him a rough notion of a book publishing project that would integrate literature with science and medicine. With Jerry’s advocacy, backed by the endorsement of Dr. Martin Blaser, then Chair and Chief of Medicine at NYU’s Department of Medicine, Bellevue Literary Press (BLP) was born.
BLP got off to a rocky start. We needed additional funding to secure broader institutional support, and it looked like we might not survive. Within two years of launching our first list in 2007, though, the impossible happened: we published a novel that won a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Tinkers by Paul Harding. The Pulitzer Prize in Fiction sells books, and ours was the first debut novel by a small press to earn that distinction in twenty-nine years. The following season, another first novel, The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak, was named a finalist for the National Book Award.
BLP had hit the cultural map—but along with many subsequent critical successes came periods of renewed financial difficulty and struggle that are all-too-familiar to arts nonprofits. Throughout, Jerry never lost faith in our work, and remained a proud supporter and ongoing inspiration. He weighed in on every manuscript that we considered for publication and was tireless in his search for new ideas and patrons to make our work sustainable. His enthusiasm was contagious, and he was responsible for attracting some of our most ardent and loyal board members, who have become close personal friends.
At the time of this writing, we’ve published over 120 books, with many more in progress. Jerry’s passionate humanism is reflected in all of our titles, in myriad ways. As we mourn his death, his belief in our work will continue to fuel our efforts, and we will always remember him with gratitude and love.
In remembrance,
Erika Goldman
Publisher & Editorial Director
