Harry Kemelman (1908–1996)

Harry Kemelman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Isaac Kemelman and his wife Dora Prizer.

After receiving a B.A. in English literature from Boston University and an M.A. in linguistics from Harvard, he taught at a number of public schools and also night classes at Northeastern University. During World War II, he worked for the U.S. Army Transportation Corps in Boston and later for the War Assets Administration. Following the war, he became a freelance writer and private businessman. In 1963, he was appointed assistant professor of English at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston. He was also an assistant professor at Boston State College in the 1960s.

His literary career began with short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

His debut book, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (1964), became a massive bestseller, a difficult achievement for a religious-themed mystery, and won Kemelman the 1965 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The popular Rabbi Small series continued for more than 30 years and comprised a total of 11 books. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late was adapted into a television film by NBC in 1976, and was the basis of a short-lived TV series, Lanigan's Rabbi, which aired on the network in 1977.

In 2003, Kemelman's classic short story "The Nine Mile Walk" was made into a feature film in Toledo, Spain.