Brickner, Richard P. 1933-2006
Brickner, Richard P. 1933-2006
(Richard Pilpel Brickner)
OBITUARY NOTICE—
See index for CA sketch: Born May 14, 1933, in New York, NY; died of heart disease, May 12, 2006, in New York, NY. Editor, educator, and author. Brickner was best known for a memoir and a fictionalized account of a car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. While a student at Middlebury College, he suffered his lifealtering injuries at the age of twenty; recovering enough to return to college, he attended Columbia University for his B.A. in 1957. Brickner then found work at the publishing house Doubleday, where he was an editor from 1957 to 1961. His first novel, The Broken Year (1962), was about a character like himself who is paralyzed. It was later made into a 1963 television movie. He also wrote about his accident and recovery in the memoir My Second Twenty Years: An Unexpected Life (1976). After leaving his editing job, Brickner turned to teaching, joining the City College of the City University of New York faculty in 1967; he later moved on to the New School to teach. Also interested in the opera, Brickner used his knowledge of music in two other novels: Bringing Down the House (1972) and Tickets (1981). His last novel was 1988's After She Left.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
BOOKS
Brickner, Richard P., My Second Twenty Years: An Unexpected Life, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1976.
PERIODICALS
New York Times, May 21, 2006, p. A29.