Carolyn Gold Heilbrun

Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 in East Orange, New Jersey – October 9, 2003) was an American academic and feminist author who also wrote mystery novels under the pen name of Amanda Cross.MccFadden, Robert D. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFD9153FF932A25753C1A9659C8B63 "Carolyn Heilbrun, Pioneering Feminist Scholar, Dies at 77"] , "The New York Times", October 11, 2003. Accessed December 18, 2007.]

Heilbrun was born in East Orange, New Jersey to Archibald Gold and Estelle Roemer Gold, and moved to Manhattan as a child.

Heilbrun graduated from Wellesley College in 1947, and attended graduate school in English literature at Columbia University, receiving her M.A. in 1951 and Ph.D in 1959. She taught English at Columbia from 1960 to 1993. Heilbrun was the first woman to receive tenure in the English department. Her academic specialty was British modern literature, with a particular interest in the Bloomsbury group.

She married James Heilbrun during World War II, and they had three children.

She was the author of fourteen Kate Fansler mysteries, written under the name Amanda Cross. Fansler, like Heilbrun, was an English professor. Heilbrun kept her second career as a mystery novelist secret in order to protect her academic career, until a fan discovered "Amanda Cross"'s true identity through copyright records. The novels, all set in academia, often were an outlet for Heilbrun's view on feminism, academic politics, and other political issues. "Death in a Tenured Position" (set at Harvard University) was particularly harsh in its criticism of the academic establishment's treatment of women.

Heilbrun committed suicide at her apartment in New York City. According to her son, she was not ill, but felt that her life had been completed.

Bibliography

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Cover of the 1966 Avon Books paperback edition of "In the Last Analysis" by Amanda Cross, (Pseudonym of Carolyn G. Heilbrun). Cover art by Robert Abbett.]

Below is a list of "Kate Fansler" mysteries:

* "In The Last Analysis" (1964)
* "The James Joyce Murder" (1967)
* "Poetic Justice" (1970)
* "The Theban Mysteries" (1972)
* "The Question of Max" (1976)
* "Death in a Tenured Position" (1981, Nero Award winner)
* "Sweet Death, Kind Death" (1984)
* "No Word From Winifred" (1984)
* "A Trap for Fools" (1989)
* "The Players Come Again" (1990)
* "An Imperfect Spy" (1995)
* "The Puzzled Heart" (1998)
* "Honest Doubt" (2000)
* "The Edge of Doom" (2002)

In addition to her mystery novels, Heilbrun was the author of 14 nonfiction books, including the feminist study "Writing a Woman's Life" (1988). These books include:

* "The Garnett Family" (1961)
* "Toward a Recognition of Androgyny" (1973)
* "Lady Ottoline's Album" (1976) (editor)
* "Reinventing Womanhood" (1979)
* "The Representation of Women in Fiction" (1983) (co-editor)
* "Hamlet's Mother and Other Women" (1990) (collection of essays)
* "The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem" (1995)
* "The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty" (1997) ISBN 0-345-42295-3

References