Jerome Weidman

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Weidman, Jerome (1913–), New York author, known for his frank, unpleasant portraits of Jewish characters, whose novels include I Can Get It For You Wholesale (1937) and its sequel, What's in It for Me? (1938), about an unscrupulous New Yorker's dress‐manufacturing business; I'll Never Go There Any More (1941); Too Early To Tell (1946), satirizing a wartime government agency; The Price Is Right (1949), about a ruthless businessman; Your Daughter Iris (1955), an epistolary tale of a young woman from the Bronx living in England; The Enemy Camp (1958), about a Jew's ambivalent attitudes toward Christian society; Before You Go (1960), about the fictitious private life of a man whose public life resembles that of Roosevelt's adviser Harry Hopkins; The Sound of Bow Bells (1962), about a Jewish novelist striving for fame by any means; Word of Mouth (1964), about a New York lawyer and the theater world; Other People's Money (1968) and The Center of the Action (1969), about the business rise of New Yorkers; Fourth Street East (1971), a fictive memoir of youth on the Lower East Side, also the setting of Last Respects (1971); Tiffany Street (1974); The Temple (1975); A Family Fortune (1978), concerning the rise and fall of a Jewish racketeer; and Counselors‐at‐Law (1980), a mystery novel involving chicanery of lawyers. Weidman's plays include Fiorello! (1960, Pulitzer Prize), a collaboration with George Abbott; Tenderloin (1961); a dramatization of I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962); Ivory Tower (1969); and Asterisk (1969). The Horse That Could Whistle “Dixie” (1939), The Captain's Tiger (1947), and The Death of Dickie Draper (1965) collect stories. Letter of Credit (1940) describes a world tour. Back Talk (1963) collects magazine sketches. Praying for Rain (1986) is a work of autobiography.

Weidman, Jerome (1913–98), librettist. A native New Yorker, who was educated at New York University Law School, Weidman made his Broadway debut as co‐author of the libretto for the Pulitzer Prize–winning musical Fiorello! (1959). He also co‐wrote Tenderloin (1960) and adapted his own novel about the garment industry into the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962). His son John WEIDMAN (b. 1946) is also a librettist. He was born in New York and educated at Harvard, where he wrote for the humor magazine Lampoon, and Yale to pursue a law career as well. But he soon turned to writing and was first represented on Broadway as the librettist for Pacific Overtures (1976), the experimental Stephen Sondheim musical about the opening of Japan. Weidman's other credits include the revised libretto for Anything Goes (1987); the bold, conceptual script for Sondheim's Assassins (1991); Big (1996); Contact (2000); and Bounce (2003).