For fifty years, Ada Louise Huxtable (1921–2013) was the preeminent writer on architecture in America and a passionate voice in defense of civic beauty and the public good. The nation’s first full-time architecture critic, she won a MacArthur “genius” grant and the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded for criticism. Christine Cipriani’s magisterial biography traces Huxtable’s work and profound impact from her denunciation of the destruction of the original Penn Station to her efforts to save the historic core of New England towns and her defense of the New York Public Library. Throughout, she captures Huxtable’s eloquence tinged with roguish wit, her fearlessness in the face of political and financial opposition, and her pioneering role in the overwhelmingly male worlds of journalism and architecture. The Critic is a thrilling tour of America’s built legacy and a powerful case that Huxtable was one of the great American critics in any field.