Brodkey, Harold (born Aaron Roy Weintraub) (1930-1996)

US writer and poet. He was known for his essays, poetry, and short stories, such as First Love and Other Sorrows (1957), and Stories in an Almost Classical Mode (1988). A detailed stylist, he spent many years working on the long, autobiographical A Party of Animals.

Brodkey was born in Alton, Illinois. His mother died when he was very young and he was adopted. He studied at Harvard, but little is known about this reclusive writer except information gleaned from his writings. Some critics say he had an obsessive attachment to his own biography, excerpts of which were published as Women and Angels (1985).