Carolyn Heilbrun/Amanda Cross: feminist critic/ mystery writer dies

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Carolyn Heilbrun, a retired Columbia University literary scholar whose extensive writings included pioneering books and essays in the feminist canon and a dozen erudite detective novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross, died at her home in New York on Thursday. She was 77.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/466/4149207.html

As a former academic, I always enjoyed her mysteries written under the name of Amanda Cross, even though I thought she didn't portray students realistically. Still, she made some significant contributions to feminist approaches to literature.

[salin]

1. I have enjoyed several of her mysteries.

Found her in an anthology of short stories by women mystery writers. She and a few others helped really make the way for a genre to take off. Think of the number of current female mystery writers whose books sell big (Grafton, Paretsky, and Kellerman - whose books I think now might outsell her husbands', to name a few).

I really enjoyed the academic setting, having grown up in one and spent quite a number of my years professionally in a couple of others.

[Isere]

2. I'm not a mystery reader

but I truly admired her work "Writing a Woman's Life" and, more recently,
"The Last Gift of Time."

What an extraordinary woman! May she rest in peace.

[pw]

3. She did good work

_Writing a Woman's Life_ was one of the most perfectly structured books I've read. And the mysteries were mannered but fun.

[saganaki]

4. Hi, Lydia!

I enjoyed her writing. I've been re-reading her early Kate Fansler books. I look forward to the more recent ones.

It was nice to meet you at the Bryant Lake Bowl. I hope to see you again soon at the next meet-up.