When I was seven, my mother handed me a stenographer's notebook in which she had written "Jeanie's Poetry Book." Thus began for me a lifelong interest in poetry which is (I was later to learn) a family avocation.
I have always known my mother, Florence Friend Shapiro, to be extremely witty, a master of puns and light verse that she can summon up for virtually any occasion. She had been voted "Most Witty" and "Best Poet" in her 1937 graduating class at Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn, New York. Someone wrote in her yearbook: "A gale of laughter, a hilarious shout, it's Florence Friend without a doubt." But I also learned that the extreme Depression-era poverty in which she grew up denied her enough money for transportation to Brooklyn College, where she had been accepted. My mother's dream of becoming a professional writer was dashed. After a stint at the Office of War Information (OWI) during World War II, my mother worked for over thirty years in the Registrar's Office at Queens College. Her quick wit and gift of friendship endeared her to many people (many of whom are her friends to this day.)
Half a world away in Israel, my mother's brother Robert Friend was developing a reputation as a poet and translator of Hebrew verse. Had he stayed in the United States, Robert might have been on the fast track to poetry stardom. After his first volume of verse, Shadow on the Sun, was published in 1941, Robert's work began to regularly appear in periodicals such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Poetry, and Partisan Review. However, when Robert emigrated to Israel in 1950, his work became more and more unknown in this country. The reverse was true in Israel,where Robert served as "one of the founding fathers of English-language poetry," according to photographer Reva Sharon. Menard Press in London published several volumes of his poetry; in addition, Robert translated the work of the Hebrew poets Yehuda Amichai, Ra'hel, Leah Goldberg, and Gabriel Preil.
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