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Judith Thurman

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Judith Thurman
Thurman in 2016
Thurman in 2016
Born1946 (age 77–78)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationWriter, critic
Alma materBrandeis University
GenreEssay, biography

Judith Thurman (born 1946)[1] is an American writer, biographer, and critic. She is the recipient of the 1983 National Book Award for Nonfiction for her biography Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller.[2][3] Her book Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette was a finalist for the 1999 nonfiction National Book Award.[4] In 2016, she received the medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.[5]

Thurman is a staff writer for The New Yorker.[6]

Early life

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In 1967, Thurman graduated from Brandeis University with a bachelor's degree.[1][7]

Early work

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Thurman began her literary career as a poet and translator. The Covent Garden Press in London published her first book of poems, Putting My Coat On, in 1972.[8] 

In the 1970s, Atheneum Books published I Became Alone, a book of essays on women poets for young people,[9] and a volume of poetry for children, Flashlight, which has been regularly anthologized for more than forty years.[10]

In 1973, Thurman returned to New York after five years in Europe and began to contribute to the newly launched Ms. magazine.[2] Her essays introduced relatively unknown women writers to a new audience. They included the French poet Louise Labé and the Mexican poet Juana Inés de la Cruz. Thurman's translations of their work appeared in the Penguin Book of Women Poets.[2] She also wrote about Gertrude Stein, Jean Rhys, Caryl Churchill, and Isak Dinesen,[11] among others. Thurman worked at Brooklyn College as an adjunct professor from 1973 to 1975.[12] For the remainder of the 1970s, Thurman had three publications while writing a biography.[13]

Writing career

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Biographies

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In the mid-1970s, Thurman began writing a biography on Isak Dinesen after being convinced by a representative from St. Martin's Press. During her eight year writing process, Thurman stopped writing her biography after experiencing writer's block and anxiety. After resuming her writing, Thurman's biography, Isak Dinesen: The Life of A Storyteller, was published by St. Martin's Press in 1982.[14][15] It won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, in 1983,[16] and served as the basis for Sydney Pollack's 1985 film Out of Africa, on which Thurman served as an Associate Producer.[17]

Thurman took leave to write a biography titled Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, which was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1999.[18] The book was noted as "effective at setting the morally subversive Colette in the social milieu of early-20th-century Paris."[19] The biography won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for biography and the Salon Book Award for biography.[20][21][22]

The New Yorker

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In 1987, Thurman began contributing to The New Yorker.[6] In 2000, she returned to The New Yorker as a staff writer, where she specialized in cultural criticism for over 20 years. A collection of her essays for the magazine, Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2007,[23] and was a New York Times Best Book of the Year.

Thurman is a recipient of the Harold G. Vursell Award for prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters;[24] the Order of Arts and Letters, from the French government;[5] and the Rungstedlund Award from the Karen Blixen Museum.[25]

Bibliography

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Poetry

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  • Putting My Coat On. London: Covent Garden Press. 1972.

Biographies

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  • Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller (1983)
  • Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette (1999)

Essay collections

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  • Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2007. [a][b]
  • A Left-Handed Woman. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2022. [c][d][e][f]

Essays and reporting

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———————

Notes
  1. ^ "Cleopatra's Nose by Judith Thurman, PopMatters". PopMatters. 2009-01-29. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  2. ^ Harrison, Kathryn (2007-11-11). "Lost Women". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  3. ^ Hoby, Hermione (2022-12-06). "Her Writing Is Gorgeous. But It Isn't Always Enough". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  4. ^ Arrowsmith, Charles (2022-11-29). "From Amelia Earhart to Miuccia Prada, a new book collects history's 'left-handed women'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  5. ^ McAlpin, Heller (2022-12-16). "'A Left-Handed Woman' Review: In Every Stitch a Story". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  6. ^ "Unfailing Empathy: A Review of A Left-Handed Woman by Judith Thurman | Newcity Lit". 2022-12-05. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  7. ^ Online version is titled "Philip Roth e-mails on Trump".
  8. ^ Online version is titled "The desires of Margaret Fuller"; first published in the April 1, 2013 issue.
  9. ^ Online version is titled "Reading Dante's Purgatory while the world hangs in the balance".

References

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  1. ^ a b "Thurman, Judith, 1946-". Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Thurman, Judith". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Judith Thurman". New York Review Books. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Judith Thurman". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Judith Thurman To Receive The Medal Of Chevalier Of The Order Of Arts And Letters". Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Judith Thurman". The New Yorker. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  7. ^ Holtze, Sally Holmes, ed. (1989). "Judith Thurman". Sixth Book of Junior Authors & Illustrators. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. p. 296. ISBN 0824207777. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  8. ^ Thurman, Judith (1972). Putting My Coat On. London: Covent Garden Press. ISBN 0-902843-38-9. OCLC 696510.
  9. ^ Thurman, Judith (1975). I became alone : five women poets, Sappho, Louise Labé, Ann Bradstreet, Juana Ines de la Cruz, Emily Dickinson. McCrea, James,, McCrea, Ruth (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-30487-0. OCLC 1322798.
  10. ^ Thurman, Judith (1977). Flashlight, and other poems. Harmondsworth: Kestrel Books. ISBN 0-7226-5411-1. OCLC 16365516.
  11. ^ Thurman, Judith (1982). Isak Dinesen: The life of a storyteller. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-90202-6. OCLC 12876897.
  12. ^ Commire, Anne, ed. (1983). "Thurman, Judith 1946—". Something About the Author. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale Research Company. p. 217. ISBN 0810300613. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  13. ^ Evory, Ann, ed. (1981). "Thurman, Judith 1946—". Contemporary Authors. New Revision. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research Company. p. 659. ISBN 0810319306. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  14. ^ O'Brien, Maureen J. (26 May 1983). "Aglow With the Dinesen Biography". Los Angeles Times. Part V p. 30.
  15. ^ Hall, Melissa Mia (November 7, 1982). "If the devil made her do it...". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 6D.
  16. ^ "Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  17. ^ Canby, Vincent (December 18, 1985). "Screen: 'Out of Africa,' Starring Meryl Streep". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  18. ^ Thurman, Judith (1999). Secrets of the flesh: A life of Colette. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-58872-X. OCLC 40783931.
  19. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman, Author Alfred A. Knopf $30 (624p) ISBN 978-0-394-58872-8". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  20. ^ "Judith Thurman". Key West Literary Seminar. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  21. ^ "Los Angeles Times Book Prize". web.mnstate.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  22. ^ "Salon Book Award | Book awards | LibraryThing". librarything.com. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  23. ^ Thurman, Judith (2008) [2007]. Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire (1st Picador ed.). New York: Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-42775-7. OCLC 216941679.
  24. ^ "Awards – American Academy of Arts and Letters". Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  25. ^ "The Rungstedlund Foundation, Karen Blixen Museum (Isak Dinesen)". KAREN BLIXEN MUSEET. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
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