Idiots First was published by Farrar, Straus in 1963 and is Malamud’s second collection of short stories — darker, more experimental, and more varied than The Magic Barrel (1958). Where the first collection was predominantly set in Jewish immigrant New York, Idiots First ranges across Italy, provincial American towns, and surrealist landscapes, demonstrating that Malamud’s vision of moral suffering was not limited to any particular ethnic or geographical setting.
The Stories
“Idiots First” — the title story, one of Malamud’s masterpieces. Mendel, an old man dying of an unnamed illness, has one night to get enough money to send his mentally disabled son Isaac to California on a train. The story is a race against death — literally, as Death appears as a character (Ginzburg, the angel of death disguised as a bureaucrat) who blocks Mendel at the train station. It is simultaneously realistic (the poverty, the desperation, the disabled child) and allegorical (the struggle with Death, the father’s love as a force that can temporarily defeat mortality).
“The Jewbird” — a talking bird named Schwartz flies into a family’s apartment and claims to be Jewish. The family’s father, Harry Cohen, eventually throws the bird out. It is found dead in spring, “who did it?” the son asks. “Anti-Semeets,” the mother answers. The story is simultaneously fable, comedy, and a devastating portrait of self-hatred.
“Black Is My Favorite Color” — a Jewish shopkeeper in Harlem attempts to befriend and love black people, fails repeatedly, and cannot understand why. Malamud’s exploration of Jewish-black relations is characteristically complex: the protagonist’s good intentions are real but insufficient.
“The German Refugee” — a German-Jewish intellectual in New York in 1939, trying to lecture in English about Whitman, unable to escape the knowledge of what is happening in Europe. One of Malamud’s most historically grounded stories.
“A Choice of Profession” — set in an Italian town, a more conventional narrative about an American teaching abroad.
Method
Idiots First shows Malamud pushing beyond the realistic immigrant fiction of his earlier work into modes that are more openly allegorical, surrealist, and formally experimental. The title story’s personification of Death, “The Jewbird“‘s talking animal, and the collection’s general willingness to depart from realism signal Malamud’s development toward the more openly fantastic fiction of God’s Grace (1982).
Collecting Idiots First
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Company, New York, 1963): Blue cloth binding with gold lettering. Dust jacket.
Identification points:
- Farrar, Straus imprint
- “First Printing, 1963” stated
- 212 pages
Market values: Fine copies in dust jacket bring $100–$300. Malamud was well-established by 1963 and the first printing was substantial.
Signed copies: $300–$700.
The collection is valued for “The Jewbird” and the title story — both frequently anthologized and both among Malamud’s most studied works.