by Ellen Feldman
Fifty years of controversy, adjudicated at last.
Though The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was originally turned down by nine publishing houses in the U.S. and five in the U.K., it went on to be translated into more than 55 languages and sell more than 25 million copies. Around the globe, young people study it; audiences flock to revivals of the play based on it; and writers — and I admit to being one of these — cannot stop mining it. Now Francine Prose, the author of 15 novels and five books of nonfiction, takes up the challenge with Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (Harper Collins, $24.99).