Elaine Kraf
Elaine Kraf (1946- ) is an American novelist. She’s worked as a preschool and kindergarten teacher and has received multiple awards, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982.
Elaine Kraf’s ability to transfuse her characters with a vibrant, often terrifying reality, startles the reader anew on every page.
— Kay Boyle
The Princess Of 72nd Street
by Elaine Kraf
In Elaine Kraf’s witty, sardonic novel The Princess of 72nd Street, the Princess Esmeralda is sure of her royalty, her seizures of “radiance,” and her domain––Manhattan’s 72nd Street from Central Park West to Riverside Drive. On the other hand, Ellen (who shares a body with the Princess) has trouble coping with an ex-lover, his psychiatrist, an ex-husband, dining out, putting just one color on her canvases at a time, and trying to keep a radiant Esmeralda from being arrested. She has even taken to propping up large signs to remind the Princess that MONEY IS THE MEANS OF BARTER and DON’T LET STRANGE MEN INTO YOUR APARTMENT. The Princess, however, can be most persuasive: she wants to remain a princess. If only she could learn to control the radiances, retain the wonderful feelings, remember what happens…
Elaine Kraf’s ability to transfuse her characters with a vibrant, often terrifying reality, startles the reader anew on every page.
— Kay Boyle
