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Lionel Trilling

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Critic

The Resume

    (July 4, 1905-November 5, 1975)
    Born in Queens, New York
    Literary critic and essayist
    Contributor to 'The Partisan Review'
    Wrote the novel 'The Middle of the Journey' (1947)
    Nonfiction works include 'The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society' (1950), 'Freud and the Crisis in Our Culture' (1955), 'Beyond Culture: Essays on Literature and Learning' (1965), and 'Sincerity and Authenticity' (1972)

Why he might be annoying:

    He disliked his first name and said he wished he had been named John instead.
    He wrote in his journal, 'I have one of the great reputations in the academic world. This thought makes me retch.' (1948)
    After a dispute over a dissertation, he refused to ever teach graduate students again (1952).
    He was a liberal who has been posthumously embraced by neocons like Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was the first Jewish tenured professor in Columbia's English department. (Although university president Nicholas Murray Butler during summer recess to minimize anti-Semitic protests.)
    His essays managed to appeal to both scholars and the general public.
    He introduced the novels of E.M. Forster to American readers.
    A student recalled, 'He was the most civilized man I ever met.'
    He protested against Lenny Bruce's arrest on obscenity charges.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying