Amy Kaplan

I was just writing a friend about Amy how turned me on to Edith Wharton's House of Mirth last night. I will be teaching it this Fall. I wrote that I still miss her. She was such an important and uniquely close friend. She and Harvey were so kind to me. I am so happy her last book has been reissued in paperback.

I've thought of Amy's prophetic last book on the US and Israel many times during the Israel's war on Gaza. And I've thought of a mutual friend Amy introduced me to, Jeneen Abouishi, whose father was a Palestinian American. Jeneen was named after the city. Amy's wonderful husband, Harvey Weiss worked with Jeneen's husband at Yale. I've remembered conversations Amy and I had in her home when we were thinking through an article or book we were writing. I got to see her brilliant mind at...

I met Amy in 1986 in Amherst, MA. I came to UMass that year, and she came to Mount Holyoke. We quickly became fast friends. We were the same age. When I was single and in my late 30s , she sometimes acted like a well-informed older sister who gave me advice on who or who not to date. Her home was always open to me. I can't remember the number of times she and her husband Harvey Weiss had me over to dinner. One time, I needed a place to stay, and Amy and Harvey offered me a room in...