Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Avalon Professor in the Humanities Emerita, taught at Columbia for 33 years. She is the author numerous books, including Toward a Recognition of Androgyny, Writing a Woman's Life, and The Last Gift of Time. As Amanda Cross, she is author of twelve best-selling novels featuring the detective Kate Fansler.

"A study of the influences of Clifton Fadiman, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun on Heilbrun's own literary development, but the book is far broader than that-really, a history of Columbia University in the turmoil of the sixties and beyond. And this isn't for women only!" (Maxine Kumin, Ploughshares) "Noted feminist literary critic Heilbrun (who also writes mysteries as Amanda Cross) contemplates how three men shaped her idea of herself as an intellectual. To a younger generation, all three of Heilbrun's mentors Jacques Barzun, Clifton Fadiman, and Lionel Trilling might need identification, though they once loomed over the American literary and academic scene. Their example showed the young Heilbrun how a public life of the mind might be lived. That none of them believed that women were capable of living this life might seem to disqualify them as useful models for an ambitious young female graduate student, but Heilbrun maintains that their basic misogyny saved her from too slavish imitation. . . . Heilbrun is generous in her assessment of the legacy of her mentors; additionally, her recollections of academia in the 1950s and '60s may serve as an explanation of why affirmative admissions to universities were deemed necessary and why they may still serve some purpose." (Publishers Weekly) "Heilbrun's engaging memoir evokes a bygone era of intellectual life, when clarity of language and exacting prose marked lively critical conversations on politics, society, and literature." (Library Journal)

Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Avalon Professor in the Humanities Emerita, taught at Columbia for 33 years. She is the author numerous books, including Toward a Recognition of Androgyny, Writing a Woman's Life, and The Last Gift of Time. As Amanda Cross, she is author of twelve best-selling novels featuring the detective Kate Fansler.

"A study of the influences of Clifton Fadiman, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun on Heilbrun's own literary development, but the book is far broader than that-really, a history of Columbia University in the turmoil of the sixties and beyond. And this isn't for women only!" (Maxine Kumin, Ploughshares) "Noted feminist literary critic Heilbrun (who also writes mysteries as Amanda Cross) contemplates how three men shaped her idea of herself as an intellectual. To a younger generation, all three of Heilbrun's mentors Jacques Barzun, Clifton Fadiman, and Lionel Trilling might need identification, though they once loomed over the American literary and academic scene. Their example showed the young Heilbrun how a public life of the mind might be lived. That none of them believed that women were capable of living this life might seem to disqualify them as useful models for an ambitious young female graduate student, but Heilbrun maintains that their basic misogyny saved her from too slavish imitation. . . . Heilbrun is generous in her assessment of the legacy of her mentors; additionally, her recollections of academia in the 1950s and '60s may serve as an explanation of why affirmative admissions to universities were deemed necessary and why they may still serve some purpose." (Publishers Weekly) "Heilbrun's engaging memoir evokes a bygone era of intellectual life, when clarity of language and exacting prose marked lively critical conversations on politics, society, and literature." (Library Journal)

Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Avalon Professor in the Humanities Emerita, taught at Columbia for 33 years. She is the author numerous books, including Toward a Recognition of Androgyny, Writing a Woman's Life, and The Last Gift of Time. As Amanda Cross, she is author of twelve best-selling novels featuring the detective Kate Fansler.

"A study of the influences of Clifton Fadiman, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun on Heilbrun's own literary development, but the book is far broader than that-really, a history of Columbia University in the turmoil of the sixties and beyond. And this isn't for women only!" (Maxine Kumin, Ploughshares) "Noted feminist literary critic Heilbrun (who also writes mysteries as Amanda Cross) contemplates how three men shaped her idea of herself as an intellectual. To a younger generation, all three of Heilbrun's mentors Jacques Barzun, Clifton Fadiman, and Lionel Trilling might need identification, though they once loomed over the American literary and academic scene. Their example showed the young Heilbrun how a public life of the mind might be lived. That none of them believed that women were capable of living this life might seem to disqualify them as useful models for an ambitious young female graduate student, but Heilbrun maintains that their basic misogyny saved her from too slavish imitation. . . . Heilbrun is generous in her assessment of the legacy of her mentors; additionally, her recollections of academia in the 1950s and '60s may serve as an explanation of why affirmative admissions to universities were deemed necessary and why they may still serve some purpose." (Publishers Weekly) "Heilbrun's engaging memoir evokes a bygone era of intellectual life, when clarity of language and exacting prose marked lively critical conversations on politics, society, and literature." (Library Journal)