Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick (July 27, 1916 – December 2, 2007) was an American

literary critic 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 discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...

, novelist, and

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer.

Early life

Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick was born as the eighth of eleven children in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

, on July 27, 1916, to strict

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

parents, the daughter of Eugene Allen Hardwick, a plumbing and heating contractor, and Mary (née Ramsey) Hardwick. She graduated from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

with a BA in 1938 and with an MA in 1939. She then entered the PhD program at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She withdrew from graduate study in 1941 to concentrate on writing. She was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

in 1947.

Career

In 1959, Hardwick published in '' Harper's'', "The Decline of Book Reviewing", a generally harsh and even scathing critique of book reviews published in American periodicals of the time. She published four books of criticism: ''A View of My Own'' (1962), ''Seduction and Betrayal'' (1974), ''Bartleby in Manhattan'' (1983), and ''Sight-Readings'' (1998). In 1961, she edited ''The Selected Letters of William James''. The

1962 New York City newspaper strike Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita ...

helped inspire Hardwick,

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the '' Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

Jason Epstein Jason Wolkow Epstein (August 25, 1928 – February 4, 2022) was an American editor and publisher. He was the editorial director of Random House from 1976 to 1995. He also co-founded ''The New York Review of Books'' in 1963. Early life Epstein ...

Barbara Epstein Barbara Epstein ( Zimmerman; August 30, 1928 – June 16, 2006) was a literary editor and founding co-editor of ''The New York Review of Books''. Life and work Epstein, née Zimmerman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Jewish family, and g ...

, and

Robert B. Silvers Robert Benjamin Silvers (December 31, 1929 – March 20, 2017) was an American editor who served as editor of ''The New York Review of Books'' from 1963 to 2017. Raised on Long Island, New York, Silvers graduated from the University of Chicago ...

to found ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', a publication that became as much a habit for many readers as ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', which Hardwick had eviscerated in her 1959 essay. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Hardwick taught writing seminars at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

and

's School of the Arts, Writing Division. She gave forthright critiques of student writing and was a mentor to students she considered promising. She was elected a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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, a ...

in 1996. In 2000, she published a short biography, ''Herman Melville'', in Viking Press's Penguin Lives series. In 2008, the

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors ran ...

selected Hardwick's account of

Caryl Chessman Caryl Whittier Chessman (May 27, 1921 – May 2, 1960) was a convicted robber, kidnapper and serial rapist who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area. Chessman was charged with 17 counts ...

's crimes for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime writing. A collection of her short fiction, ''The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick'', was published

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication Posthumous publication refers to material that is published after the author's death. This can be because the auth ...

in 2010, as was ''The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick'' in 2017. In 2021, Cathy Curtis published a biography of Hardwick, '' A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick''.

Personal life

From July 28, 1949, until their eventual divorce in 1972, she was married to

, the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

‐winning poet from the prominent

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English coloni ...

family. Their daughter was Harriet Lowell. She died in a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

hospital on December 2, 2007, aged 91.

Published works

Hardwick was the author of three novels and a biography of American novelist

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are '' Moby-Dick'' (1851); '' Typee'' (1846), a ...

: * ''The Ghostly Lover'' (1945) * ''The Simple Truth'' (1955) * '' Sleepless Nights'' (1979) * ''Herman Melville'' (2000)

References

External links

Elizabeth Hardwick Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

.
Guide to the Elizabeth Hardwick manuscript, 1955
housed at the

Libraries Special Collections Research Center. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardwick, Elizabeth 1916 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers American literary critics American women critics American women non-fiction writers American women novelists American women short story writers Columbia University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Kentucky women writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Novelists from Kentucky Novelists from New York (state) The New York Review of Books people The New York Review of Books University of Kentucky alumni Women literary critics Writers from Lexington, Kentucky Writers from Manhattan