ALAN ISLER

ISLER--Alan, author and professor, died March 29, 2010 after a long illness. Born in London in 1934, Alan Isler emigrated to the United States at the age of 18. He served in the US Army from 1954 to 1956. He received his doctorate in English Literature from Columbia University and taught Renaissance literature at Queens College, CUNY, from 1967 to 1995. His first novel, The Prince of West End Avenue, won the National Jewish Book Award in 1994 and was nominated as a finalist in fiction by the National Book Critics Circle. In England in 1995, it won the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize and was a finalist for the Writers' Guild award. He is also the author of: Kraven Images (1996), The Bacon Fancier, also published as Op. Non. Cit. (1999), Clerical Errors (2002) and The Living Proof (2005). His work, noted for its wit and literary erudition, has been translated into more than twelve languages. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Ellen Isler, president and CEO of JBI International, the Jewish Braille Institute; his sisters, Fay Ruback, Dolly Gillin of Los Angeles and Ella Molin; four children, Adam, Eric, Joshua and Claudia; two stepsons, Adam and Ethan Gahtan; and eleven grandchildren. Donations in his memory may be sent to JBI International, 110 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016. Services will be on Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 11am at the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, 630 Amsterdam Avenue at West 91st Street.