Chaim Potok was an American Jewish author and rabbi. Potok is most famous for his first book The Chosen, a 1967 novel which was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies. Herman Harold Potok was born in The Bronx, New York City, to Benjamin Max and Mollie Potok , Jewish immigrants from Poland. He was the oldest of four children, all of whom either became rabbis or married one. His Hebrew name was Chaim Tzvi . He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided... to become a writer . He started writing fiction at the age of 16. At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work. In 1949, at the age of twenty, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a B.A.
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