Diana Trilling (née Rubin; July 21, 1905 – October 23, 1996) was an American

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

and author, one of a group of left-wing writers known as the New York Intellectuals.

Background

Born Diana Rubin, she married the literary and cultural critic Lionel Trilling in 1929 after an extended stay in Paris with childhood friend Margaret Lefranc. Her parents, Sadie (née Forbert) and Joseph Rubin, were

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

, her father from Warsaw and her mother from the local countryside. She graduated from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

Career

Diana Trilling was a reviewer for ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' magazine. Her works include ''We Must March My Darlings'' (1977), an essay collection; ''Mrs. Harris'' (1981), a study of and meditation on the trial of Jean Harris; and ''The Beginning of the Journey'' (1993), a memoir of her life and marriage to Lionel Trilling. She was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1976.

Cultural impact

Carolyn Heilbrun wrote about Trilling in her own final memoirs, ''When Men Were the Only Models We Had'' (2002). In his 1986 essay collection '' The Moronic Inferno'',

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

discusses the experience of meeting Trilling and her impact on

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

:Amis, Martin, "Diana Trilling at Claremont Avenue," ''The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1986. p. 63-4.,

In New York, Diana Trilling is regarded with the suspicious awe customarily reserved for the city's senior literary ladies. Whenever I announced my intention of going along to interview her, people looked at me with trepidation, a new respect, a certain holy dread. I felt I was about to enter the lion's den — or the den of the literary lionness, which is often just as dangerous.

Works by Trilling

* ''Claremont essays'' (1965, Secker & Warburg) * ''We must march my darlings: a critical decade'' (1977, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) * ''Reviewing the forties'' (1978, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) * ''Mrs. Harris: the death of the Scarsdale diet doctor'' (1981, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) * ''The beginning of the journey: the marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling'' (1993, Harcourt Brace)

References

External links