Michael A. Bernstein ’69

Michael Bernstein, professor of English and comparative literature at UC Berkeley, died May 25, 2011, in Oakland, Calif. He was 63.

Michael’s writing gracefully synthesized the subjects about which he was so broadly learned: history, literature, art, and politics. His writings include: Prima della Rivoluzione, The Tale of the Tribe: Ezra Pound and the Modern Verse Epic, Bitter Carnival: Ressentiment and the Abject Hero, Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History, and Five Portraits: Modernism and the Imagination in Twentieth-Century German Writing.

Michael’s novel, Conspirators, was named one of the 25 best of 2004 by the Los Angeles Times. He was working on a new novel at the time of his death. He was awarded the Koret Israel Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was beloved for his course that taught the entirety of Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust.  

He was a devoted father to his three daughters, Anna-Nora, from his first marriage, and Amitai and Oriane Sachs-Bernstein, from his marriage to Dalya Sachs-Bernstein, his widow, who survives him in sorrow.  

Donations in his memory may be made to UC Berkeley’s Professor Michael A. Bernstein Memorial Fund by calling 510-642-1212 or going to the website givetocal.berkeley.edu.