My Fortune As Told

Jerome Wallerstein was born in 1961 in a small town called Quitman, in rural Georgia near the Okefonokee Swamp. His father (a medical doctor) and mother (a registered nurse) moved their large family to Toledo, Ohio in 1967 after years of struggling with prejudice in the bastion of southern confederacy; his grandmother lived with the family until her passing in 1987, and he has five surviving siblings. Wallerstein enjoyed what he calls an "idyllic" childhood, spending his free time roaming the untamed woods and playing imaginative games with family and friends.

As Wallerstein reached his teens he found himself struggling to reconcile artistic and spiritual leanings with traditionally conservative mid-west values. When he was evicted from a renowned Jesuit preparatory school Wallerstein undertook a long and ongoing search for, to use his words, "a connection with the source, the definition of which I leave to others". That search has taken him to many lands and presented before him many unique opportunities. That search continues to this day, and on into tomorrow, with consorts of both tangible and intangible form.

Jerome L. Wallerstein received his first public exposure as a young man of 15 when he drew a thrice-weekly comic strip and satire piece for select friends which garnered minor exposure in an independently owned record store in Toledo, Ohio. A few years later Wallerstein would further develop the characters of the strip in a novella entitled 'The Hog Chronicles, Part One; The Born Loser'.

Although he always loved the theatre and performing arts (as a child he conceived and performed in plays for neighbors and friends) it was not until age 17 that he authored his first novel. Since that time he has worked steadily on artistic endeavors while earning a living through executive management positions. Jerome Wallerstein has published twelve novels and twelve theatrical plays, in addition to two screenplays, scores of music lyrics, poetry, short stories and aphorisms.

Wallerstein has self-published all of his novels and theatrical plays, having initially found success selling them with little fanfare on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. It was here that he first received acclaim with his performance piece 'Vacation At The Club Health', shortly thereafter incorporated into the original 'Brauderick; A Collection'.

Heavily influenced by the literary works of Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Mann and Hesse, Jerome L. Wallerstein has left as his literary legacy an eclectic and original body of work.

In an interview Wallerstein once explained that, while those interested in him could glean much from his works ..."I will say this; I try to keep a sense of humor, to live a life of integrity, and to remain mindful that everything is an extension of the source. Based upon direct personal experience, I have a very strong sense of what I will call 'the immaterial', which I only selectively and cautiously express to others. Truly, I feel blessed to have been exposed to the agents of growth I've thus far encountered on my journey. Notwithstanding all I can not fathom and all that I am oblivious to, there is one thing I do know with absolute certainty: until I live each and every moment from the heart, I still have a lot of walkin' ahead of me".