Morris Dickstein (US literary scholar and writer) Add a review

Morris Dickstein (February 23, 1940 – March 24, 2021) was an American literary scholar, cultural historian, professor, essayist, book critic, and public intellectual. He was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

A leading scholar of 20th-century American literature, film, literary criticism, and popular culture, Dickstein's work has appeared in both the popular press and academic journals, including The New York Times Book Review, Partisan Review, TriQuarterly, The New Republic, The Nation, Harper’s, New York Magazine, Critical Inquiry, Dissent, The Times Literary Supplement, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate, and Bookforum.

Dickstein was a contributing editor to Partisan Review from 1972-2003 and a member of the board of directors for the National Book Critics Circle. He was a member of the National Society of Film Critics and former president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.

Dickstein was the author of several books on American literature and culture, including Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties (1977), which was named one of the “Best Books of 1977” by The New York Times Book Review; Double Agent: The Critic and Society (1992); Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of American Fiction, 1945 – 1970 (2002); A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World (2005); and Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression (2009), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. The late author Norman Mailer called Dickstein “one of our best and most distinguished critics of American literature.”

On March 24, 2021, Dickstein died of complications from Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan at the age of 81.