Heilbrun, Carolyn Gold

▪ 2004

      American feminist literary scholar and fiction writer (b. Jan. 13, 1926, East Orange, N.J.—d. Oct. 9, 2003, New York, N.Y.), was on the faculty of Columbia University, New York City, from 1960 to 1992 (with brief stints as visiting professor at a few other colleges during those years) and wrote a number of scholarly books and articles, including Toward a Recognition of Androgyny (1973) and Writing a Woman's Life (1988), but achieved more widespread prominence with a series of detective novels written under the name Amanda Cross, a pseudonym she adopted because she feared that mystery writing might compromise her chances for tenure. Her detective, Kate Fansler, was—like Heilbrun—a literature professor, and the mysteries not only delved into crime solving but also revealed the more unflattering aspects of academe.

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