Author and rabbi Chaim Potok was born February 17, 1929 in the Bronx. He decided to become a write after reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce. His novel, The Chosen (1967), won the Edward Lewis Wallant Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award. It was made into a major motion picture in 1981, starring Maximilian Schell and Rod Steiger. Its sequel, The Promise (1969), won the Athenaeum Award in the year of publication. Chaim Potok died on died on July 23, 2002 in Merion, Pennsylvania.