October 15, 2019 —
Stefan has authored 15 books, all of which are available on loan from the Kendal on Hudson library—and his fellow residents like it that way: After checking out Stefan’s book on Lucille Ball they often ask what it was like to meet her. They’ll read the Marlon Brando book and want to know more, or they’ll pepper him with questions over dinner to see what it was like to have lunches and dinners with Groucho Marx.
Stefan is one of the many interesting and remarkable residents who live at Kendal on Hudson. His story is one of the many that make retirement community living here so enriching.
“We wanted to stay in the area because living near the Hudson River is to us what living near the Mississippi was for Mark Twain,” says Stefan.
“But the transition to living at Kendal on Hudson was easier for me and my wife than I thought it would be: We were already accustomed to the weather, having owned a home in Hastings on Hudson; we had family living nearby who supported our decision to move here; and we appreciated the continued proximity to New York City, where we still have friends and where I still commute to write for the City Journal, an elegant quarterly magazine published there.”
“Like home, we have central air conditioning; we have a fireplace—not in our room, but in the common area—and there are books and interesting people everywhere. This community has retired CEOs and architects, retired doctors and shrinks—there’s no shortage of I.Q. here—these are active, engaging people: This is not an old-age home,” says Stefan.
Stefan worked as a movie and book review editor at Time Magazine for 22 years before embracing the opportunity to write books and become his own boss. You might say that writing was the family business in the Kanfer household: Stefan’s grandfather was a writer, his father was a widely-published poet, and his grandmother had authored a bestselling book on Jewish Cookery that went into 44 editions and that’s still in print.
Stefan enjoys the Hudson River frontage and beautiful Rockefeller Estate parkland located alongside Kendal on Hudson, and he loves ambling around the elegant grounds and entertaining friends and family in his apartment or out on his deck. He stays busy and engaged, but also plays the ukulele or creates resin-based bird carvings in his spare time, when he’s not engaged with writing essays and books.