Queer Places:
Columbia University (Ivy League), 116th St and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Wellesley College (Seven Sisters), 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
Carolyn
Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 – October 9, 2003) was an American
academic at Columbia University, the first woman to receive tenure in the
English department, and a prolific feminist author of academic studies. In
addition, beginning in the 1960s, she published numerous popular mystery
novels with a woman protagonist, under the pen name of Amanda Cross.[1]
These have been translated into numerous languages and in total sold
nearly one million copies worldwide.
In two of her novels she employed the theme of androgyny. She also wrote
the non
-
fiction, 1973
Toward a
Recognition of Androgyny
in which she promoted
androgyny as aspect of her approach to feminism, an intellectual denial of any
significant
differences between the sexes. While that thread of American feminism
has lost favor in current feminist ideologies, matters of gender identity are rising
in prominence in American social and political thought, reviving the debate on
male and female role
s and identities in the United States.
Heilbrun attended graduate school in English literature at Columbia
University, receiving her M.A. in 1951 and Ph.D in 1959.[1][2]
Among her most important mentors were Columbia professors Jacques Barzun
and Lionel Trilling, while Clifton Fadiman was an important inspiration:
She wrote about these three in her final non-fiction work, When Men
Were the Only Models We Had: My Teachers Barzun, Fadiman, Trilling (2002).
Heilbrun taught English at Columbia for more than three decades, from
1960 to 1992.[2]
She was the first woman to receive tenure in the English Department and
held an endowed position.[3]
Her academic specialty was British modern literature, with a particular
interest in the Bloomsbury Group.[1]
Her academic books include the feminist study Writing a Woman's Life
(1988). In 1983, she co-founded and became co-editor of the Columbia
University Press's Gender and Culture Series with literary scholar Nancy
K. Miller.[4]
From 1985 until her retirement in 1992, she was Avalon Foundation
Professor in the Humanities at Columbia.[1][2]
Heilbrun was the author of 14 Kate Fansler mysteries, published under
the pen name of Amanda Cross. Her protagonist Kate Fansler, like Heilbrun,
was an English professor. In 1965, the first novel in the series was
shortlisted for the Edgar Award in the category of Best First novel.
[5]
Heilbrun kept her second career as a mystery novelist secret in order
to protect her academic career, until a fan discovered "Amanda Cross"'
true identity through copyright records. Through her novels, all set in
academia, Heilbrun explored issues in feminism, academic politics, women's
friendships, and other social and political themes. Death in a Tenured
Position (1981, set at Harvard
University) was particularly harsh in its criticism of the academic
establishment's treatment of women. Her books were translated into
"Japanese, German, French, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish and Italian, selling
in total nearly a million copies worldwide."[3]
Heilbrun was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Archibald Gold and
Estelle (Roemer) Gold. The family moved to Manhattan's Upper West Side
when she was a child.[1]
She graduated from Wellesley College in 1947 at the top of her class. She
married James Heilbrun, whom she met in college. He was an economist and
they had three children. She completed her master's and doctorate degrees
after her marriage, and was the first woman hired in Columbia's English
department.[6]
In the book The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty, Heilbrun
expressed her desire to take her own life on her 70th birthday because
"there is no joy in life past that point, only to experience the miserable
endgame." She turned 70 in January 1996 and did not follow up on her idea
at the time. She lived another seven years. One fall morning in 2003, she
went for a walk around New York City with her longtime friend
Mary Ann
Caws and told the latter: "I feel sad." When Caws prompted her why,
Heilbrun responded: "The universe."[7]
Afterward, she went home to her apartment. The next morning she was found
dead, having taken sleeping pills and placed a plastic bag over her head.
She left a suicide note, which read: "The journey is over. Love to all."
She was 77 years old. According to her son, she had been in good health
with no known physical or mental ailments, and she felt her life was
"completed".[7]
Heilbrun enjoyed solitude when working and, despite being a wife and
mother of three, often spent time alone at various retreats over the
years, including her luxury Manhattan apartment and a country home in
upstate New York. She also had a Summer house in Alford, Massachusetts.[8]
At the age of 68, she purchased a new home to use by herself, as she
wanted a private place. She held strong opinions on nearly every aspect of
women's lives and also believed that ending one's own life was a basic
human right. In keeping with her views on aging in The Last Gift of
Time: Life Beyond Sixty, she quit wearing high heels, hose, and
form-fitting clothing in her early 60s. She adopted blouses and slacks as
her daily attire. Heilbrun's son recalled, "My mother was a generous
hostess when she was young, but lost interest in dinner parties as she got
older. She preferred to order groceries from the local supermarket and
have them sent to her apartment as she was too busy to waste time
squeezing oranges at Fairway."[7]
Heilbrun received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966 and 1970, a Bunting
Institute Fellowship in 1976, and a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1976. She
was a National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Research Fellow in
1983. Heilbrun served as a member of the executive council of the Modern
Language Association from 1976 to 1979, and was the organizations
president in 1984.
[9]
Heilbrun was the subject of a 1992 New York Times Magazine
profile by Anne Matthews wherein she accused the Columbia English
Department of discriminating against women.[10]
Former Dean of Columbia College Carl Hovde admitted that there was
widespread past discrimination against women at Columbia "and all other
universities," but dismissed Matthew's accusations of current
discriminations in an angry letter to the editor as "rubbish."
[11] Nonetheless, Heilbrun was very specific in her memories of
being a celebrated female professor at Columbia. "When I spoke up for
women's issues, I was made to feel unwelcome in my own department, kept
off crucial committees, ridiculed, ignored," Heilbrun told the New York
Times. "Ironically, my name in the catalogue gave Columbia a reputation
for encouraging feminist studies in modernism. Nothing could be further
from the truth."
My published books:
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