Rudner, Lawrence Sheldon, 1947-

Lawrence Sheldon Rudner (1947-1995) was a Holocaust scholar, educator, historian, journalist, writer, and professor of English at North Carolina State University. He was the author of The Magic We Do Here, an unpublished manuscript "Memory's Tailor," and several short stories and articles. He was also a dedicated educator who developed the "Holocaust in Literature" course at North Carolina State University and worked with the Humanities Extension in the prison system co-teaching "Survival and Growth under Adverse Conditions" to long-term inmates.

From the description of Lawrence Sheldon Rudner papers, 1967-1998 [manuscript]. (North Carolina State University). WorldCat record id: 466907499

Lawrence Sheldon Rudner was born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 7, 1947. He attended Mumford High School in Detroit. During the 1960s, Rudner studied at the London School of Economics, receiving a diploma in philosophy in 1967. He also attended Michigan State University, receiving a bachelor's degree in history and social science in 1968; a master's degree in history in 1971; a master's degree in communications and journalism in 1972; and a doctorate in English and American Studies in 1977. During the Vietnam War, Rudner was a member of the anti-war organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

From 1975-1976, Rudner taught English courses at Western Michigan University and from 1976-1978, at Lakeland College in Wisconsin. Rudner began teaching in the English department at North Carolina State University as an assistant professor in 1978. He became an associate professor in 1985 and a full professor in 1992. Rudner taught courses at North Carolina State in journalism, American literature, world literature, and occasionally creative writing. The focus of his academic career, however, was the Holocaust, about which he researched, taught, and wrote. He created a course in the English department at North Carolina State entitled " Literature of the Holocaust " (later, "The Holocaust in Literature"), which continued to be taught after his death. In 1988, Rudner published his first novel, The Magic We Do Here, which won the 1988 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. According to Rudner, this novel was an attempt to fight the passing of memory about the Holocaust. Rudner also published several short stories and non-fiction articles relating to the Holocaust. His second and final novel, Memory's Tailor, was published posthumously in 1998 after being edited by colleague John Kessel and editor Susan Ketchin .

During the 1980s, Rudner spent many of his summers in Poland and Czechoslovakia as an American Studies Fellowship lecturer. He was awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship for 1986-1987 and spent that time at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland teaching courses on American literature and a seminar on Isaac Bashevis Singer . Also during the 1980s, Rudner and colleague Sandy Kessler taught a humanities course entitled "Survival and Growth Under Adverse Conditions" to long-term inmates of Raleigh's Central Prison .

In 1969, Rudner married his wife Lauren, with whom he had two children, Joshua and Elizabeth. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1994, stopped teaching after the spring semester of that year, and died on May 5, 1995 at the age of 48.

From the guide to the Lawrence Sheldon Rudner Papers, 1967 - 1998, (Special Collections Research Center)