Background
Portnoy, Ethel was born on March 8, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Arrived in The Netherlands, 1970. Daughter of Joseph and Esther (Weiner) Portnoy.
Portnoy, Ethel was born on March 8, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Arrived in The Netherlands, 1970. Daughter of Joseph and Esther (Weiner) Portnoy.
Bachelor, Hunter College, 1947. Master of Arts, University Wisconsin, 1949. Certified Ethnologie, University Sorbonne, Paris, 1951.
Postgraduate, Ecole Pratique Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1969.
She wrote mainly essays, columns, short stories, travel stories and several novels. She took classes in English literature in New York and learned French in the United States, then departed to Europe in 1950 with a Fulbright for the University of Lyon. She raised two children and until 1962 she worked at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. She worked for Dutch papers and was published in Randstad, in the weeklies Haagse Post and Vrij Nederland and also in the National Research Council/Handelsblad.
The family moved to The Hague in 1970.
In the late 1970s Portnoy was one of the editors of the feminist literary journal Chrysallis. Since 1979, she worked at the journal Maatstaf.
Portnoy debuted as a novelist in 1971 at the age of 44 with the book Steen en Been. She wrote in English, but considered herself a Dutch writer
, Amsterdam 1984.
Board member Nederlandse Film Keuring, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1975-1979. Member Phi Beta Kappa.