American literary scholar and cultural historian (1940–2021)
Morris Dickstein
Born
(1940-02-23)February 23, 1940
New York City, New York, United States
Died
March 24, 2021(2021-03-24) (aged 81)
New York City, New York, United States
Education
Columbia University (BA) Yale University (MA, PhD) Clare College, Cambridge Jewish Theological Seminary
Occupation(s)
Literary critic, cultural historian, professor
Employer
CUNY Graduate Center
Known for
Literary criticism
Morris Dickstein (February 23, 1940 – March 24, 2021) was an American literary scholar, cultural historian, professor, essayist, book critic, and public intellectual. He was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.
A leading scholar of 20th-century American literature, film, literary criticism, and popular culture, Dickstein's work has appeared in both the popular press and academic journals, including The New York Times Book Review, Partisan Review, TriQuarterly, The New Republic, The Nation, Harper’s, New York Magazine, Critical Inquiry, Dissent, The Times Literary Supplement, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate, and Bookforum.
Dickstein was a contributing editor to Partisan Review from 1972-2003 and a member of the board of directors for the National Book Critics Circle.[1] He was a member of the National Society of Film Critics and former president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.[2]
Dickstein was the author of several books on American literature and culture, including Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties (1977), which was named one of the “Best Books of 1977” by The New York Times Book Review;[3]Double Agent: The Critic and Society (1992); Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of American Fiction, 1945 – 1970 (2002); A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World (2005); and Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression (2009), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.[4] The late author Norman Mailer called Dickstein “one of our best and most distinguished critics of American literature.”[5]
On March 24, 2021, Dickstein died of complications from Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan at the age of 81.[6]
^Banks, Eric. "Critical Library: Morris Dickstein." Critical Mass: The Blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors. 3 October 2009. Accessed 1 October 2014 [1]
^ALSCW.org. "Local Meeting in New York City." 19 December 2012. Accessed 10 October 2014. [2]
^LibraryThing. "New York Times Best Book Books of the Year." Accessed 15 October 2014. [3]
^"The National Book Critics Circle Awards, 2009". Archived from the original on 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2014-11-09.
^Mailer, Norman. Cover Quote for Dickstein, Morris. A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2005. [4]
^"Morris Dickstein, Influential Critic-Historian, Dead at 81". U.S. News & World Report. New York, NY. March 25, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
MorrisDickstein (February 23, 1940 – March 24, 2021) was an American literary scholar, cultural historian, professor, essayist, book critic, and public...
Dickstein is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Mindi Dickstein, American lyricist and librettist MorrisDickstein (1940–2021), American...
emphatically, "Absolutely. My God, to read without joy is stupid." The critic MorrisDickstein has noted that while Butcher's Crossing, Stoner, and Augustus are each...
Literature Compass. 8 (11): 840–855. doi:10.1111/j.1741-4113.2011.00841.x. MorrisDickstein (August 3, 1997). "An Outsider to His Own Life". The New York Times...
"Life will go on as it has always gone on – that is, badly". Academic MorrisDickstein has suggested there is "a touch of Orwell himself in this creature's...
the character of Maureen. In The New York Times Book Review, critic MorrisDickstein compared the novel to its predecessor Portnoy's Complaint: No writer...
Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 953. ISBN 0-15-503770-6. MorrisDickstein, "An Outsider to His Own Life", Books, The New York Times, August 3...
differed greatly from his own). In another take on Schwartz's fiction, MorrisDickstein wrote that "Schwartz's best stories are either poker-faced satirical...
Literature ed. by David Scott Kastan. Oxford University Press, 2006. MorrisDickstein, "An Outsider to His Own Life", Books, The New York Times, August 3...
the Cold War. Communication & Society, 25(1), pp. 113–136. (2012). MorrisDickstein (Spring 1988). "Sunset Boulevard" Grand Street Vol. 7 No. 3 p. 180...
student of political theorist Marshall Barman as well as Literary Critic MorrisDickstein and poet Matvei Yankelevich. He studied Human Rights Law at the EIUC...
Habermas, Daniel Dennett, Stanley Fish, David Bromwich, Simon Blackburn, MorrisDickstein & others, Slate Magazine, June 18, 2007. "The Inspiring Power of the...
essay titled The Aesthetics of Fright, cultural historian and essayist MorrisDickstein compared Leatherface to Michael Myers of the Halloween franchise. Writing...
the Depression. Avant-garde music had lost what cultural historian MorrisDickstein calls "its buoyant experimental edge" and the national mood toward...
There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, Oxford University Press, 1994. Ed. MorrisDickstein, Duke University Press, 1998 Baldwin, James Mark (ed., 1901–1905),...
suggesting that many student activists might have shared the view of MorrisDickstein, to whom it work meant, "not some ontological breakthrough for human...
(2011). Departures : Memoirs. Foreword by Adam Gopnik; introduction by MorrisDickstein. New York: Other Press. Gopnik, Adam (February 14, 2011). "The information :...
Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, by MorrisDickstein Biography and Autobiography - Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, by Melvin...
title, A Fire on the Moon. Initial reviews of the book were mixed. MorrisDickstein in The New York Times Book Review suggested the book was overwritten...
disease. He had strong political views that he would ferociously defend. MorrisDickstein, a professor at Queens College referred to Howe as a "counterpuncher...
the South Carolina House of Representatives (1955–1958, 1967–1972). MorrisDickstein, 81, American literary scholar, complications from Parkinson's disease...
Rediscovery of a Great Novelist", in The Canadian Jewish Chronicle by Harold U. Ribalow "Memory Unbound", by MorrisDickstein in "The Three Penny Review"...
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