non-fiction

The Poorhouse State: The American Way of Life on Public Assistance

In 1965, Elman worked as a research associate for the School of Social Work Research Center at Columbia University. His book, The Poorhouse State: The American Way of Life On Public Assistance evolved from those experiences where he spent two years interviewing people on relief in New York’s Lower East Side.

Manny Gelder, Slumlord is a chapter from the book.

Namedropping (1997)

Before Elman died, he read the galley-proofs of his memoir, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs. What sets this work apart from other recent memoirs is that Elman (Tar Beach) is finally less revealing of himself than of his cultural milieu. Through brief essays, Elman records his encounters with a range of important and interesting public figures, mostly other writers but also musicians, actors and politicians.

Ill-at-Ease in Compton

Published in 1967, Ill-at-Ease in Compton is a book of reportage, about the mechanisms of discrimination at work in Compton, California a city with a large lower middle-class population. Richard’s first visit to Compton (a population of 75,000 at the time), was during the 1964 election when he had been sent there to prepare a script about the community for an educational TV station. Compton had been picked as a typical Democratic town which was to be compared to a typically Republican town in program about voting patterns.

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