Background
Henry Felsen was born on August 16, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of Harry and Sabina Bedrick Felsen.
Henry Felsen with his daughter
Henry Felsen at work
Henry Felsen
(This book gives an historical look at the dangers of teen...)
This book gives an historical look at the dangers of teens and reckless driving. After WWII, cars became more accessible, and teens were now hitting the roads for excitement. Many horrific accidents occurred all over the country.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1622720067/?tag=2022091-20
1950
(Ricky Madison is that boy in Street Rod. In this timeless...)
Ricky Madison is that boy in Street Rod. In this timeless coming of age story, Ricky goes against his parents to buy a car, enabling him to be part of the group. "Scooping the loop", wild driving, and pranking others gets him in trouble with the adults in town. Ricky and his dad come up with a way for teens to be respected as responsible drivers, but encounters problems along the way.
https://www.amazon.com/Street-Rod-Henry-Gregor-Felsen/dp/1622720008
1953
(Link Aller was a rebel and an outcast. The people of Dell...)
Link Aller was a rebel and an outcast. The people of Dellville blamed him for what had happened to Ricky Madison.Virgil Kern, Dellville's new cop, had nothing but comtempt for Link, and had no problem roughing him up.Link knew how to get back at Kern, a plan that included Kern's 16 year old daughter, Darlene.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1622720016/?tag=2022091-20
1954
(Racing gave way to recklessness and "heroes" were measure...)
Racing gave way to recklessness and "heroes" were measured by the depth of their road wounds. Where would the new fad end? That question troubled the principal of Raccoon Forks High. But how to regain his leadership and the affections of his girl was all that mattered to Mike Revere.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1622720032/?tag=2022091-20
1958
Henry Felsen was born on August 16, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of Harry and Sabina Bedrick Felsen.
Henry attended high school in Kerhonkson, New York, and graduated in 1933 from Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, New York. He then moved to Iowa City, Iowa, and attended the State University of Iowa for two years. He dropped out after the start of his junior year when he could no longer earn enough money to pay for tuition and living expenses.
Henry Felsen started his career writing articles for Iowa: A Guide to the Hawkeye State, a publication of the Iowa Writers' Project. He struggled through the Depression years. Felsen worked on and off for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), tried to sell books, and once opened a fencing studio that failed. He then became a full-time writer at Look magazine.
Felsen got his start writing detective stories in 1940 with Darrell Huff, an editor at Look. When Huff took a position with the David C. Cook Publishing Company, he hired Felsen as a staff writer. Felsen stayed there for eight months until his first novel, Jungle Highway (1941), was published. He spent the next 18 months as a freelance writer in New York.
Felsen spent the next two-and-a-half years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was a drill instructor and served in the Pacific theater as a writer and editor for the Marine Corps magazine, Leatherneck. He returned to Iowa in 1946 and remained there for many years.
Felsen was a prolific author. He wrote more than 30 books and hundreds of articles and short stories about teens and their cars. He also wrote the screenplay for one of his books, Fever Heat, originally written under the pen name Angus Vicker. The movie starred the Academy Award-nominated actor Nick Adams in his last role before his untimely death. Fever Heat was filmed on dirt race tracks in Stuart, Oskaloosa, Des Moines, and Dexter, Iowa.
In the 1960s Felsen continued to write about familiar topics in Letters to a Teen-Age Son (1962), To My Son the Teen-Age Driver (1964), and To My Son in Uniform (1967). The books continued to offer advice and convey real situations in a plain and straightforward manner.
From 1964 to 1969 Felsen taught part-time at Drake University. He received criticism for his unorthodox teaching methods. He neither gave exams nor assigned books for class, and he refused to fail any student.
In 1977 he left West Des Moines to move to Vermont and later lived in Michigan. He spent much of the last two decades of his life traveling. He lived in Grandville, Michigan, and died of a heart ailment in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1995.
(Racing gave way to recklessness and "heroes" were measure...)
1958(This book gives an historical look at the dangers of teen...)
1950(A vintage collection of Old West inspired humor, spoofs, ...)
1967(1963 romantic novel with medical setting.)
1950(Ricky Madison is that boy in Street Rod. In this timeless...)
1953(Link Aller was a rebel and an outcast. The people of Dell...)
1954Even though his books were about young men, fast cars, and girlfriends, Felsen used many of them to moralistically explore the evils of drug abuse, sexism, and racism. He claimed that "I was years ahead of my time to approach and explore these topics in literature aimed at the young reader." The car series also appealed to young readers because it realistically paralleled the car culture of the 1950s and the craze of "hot rodding." The realism in his writing was also evident in the unhappy endings and heroes who were often rebels. Felsen's books reflected the morals, values, and prejudices of the time.
While Felsen was at the State University of Iowa, he met Isabel Marie Vincent of West Des Moines, Iowa. They were married in 1937. They had two children: Dan and Holly. Later they divorced, and Felsen married for the second time.