Thurman, Judith

PERSONAL:

Born October 28, in New York, NY; daughter of William A. (a lawyer) and Alice nee Meisner (a teacher) Thurman; divorced; children: William Thurman Naythons. Education: Brandeis University, A.B., 1967.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY.

CAREER:

New Yorker magazine, staff writer; Architectural Digest, contributing writer. Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, adjunct lecturer, 1973-74.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1980; National Book Award for nonfiction, 1983, for Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller; Los Angeles Times Book Award for biography, and Salon Book Award for biography, both 1999, both for Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette; Harold G. Vursell Award for prose style, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2005; Rungstedlund Prize, Karen Blixen Foundation/Royal Danish Academy, 2007.

WRITINGS:

Putting My Coat On (poetry), Covent Garden Press (London, England), 1972.

(Editor, with Lilian Moore) To See the World Afresh (poetry), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1974.

I Became Alone: Five Women Poets (essays), illustrated by James and Ruth McCrea, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1975.

Flashlight, and Other Poems (poetry; for children), illustrated by Reina Rubel, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1976.

I'd Like to Try a Monster's Eye (poetry; for children), illustrated by Reina Rubel, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1977.

Lost & Found (poetry; for children), illustrated by Reina Rubel, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1978.

(With Jonathan David) The Magic Lantern: How Movies Got to Move (nonfiction; for children), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1979.

Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller (biography), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1982, published in England as Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen. Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1982.

Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette (biography), Knopf (New York, NY), 1999.

(Author of text) Richard Avedon: Made in France (photo book), photographs by Richard Avedon, Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire (essays), Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY), 2007.

Poetry represented in anthologies, including The New York Times Book of Poems, edited by Thomas Lask, Macmillan, 1970, and The Logic of Poetry, edited by Briggs and Monaco, McGraw, 1974. Contributor of translations to Penguin Women Poets, Penguin, 1979. Contributor to periodicals, including Ms., New York Times Book Review, Nation, London Sunday Times Magazine, Vogue, New York Times, and Shenandoah. Isak Dinesen and Secrets of the Flesh have been translated into more than ten languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

Judith Thurman is a longtime staff writer for the New Yorker magazine as well as a poet and biographer of subjects including writers Isak Dinesen and Colette, both women "who break rules and cross boundaries, in their writing and in their lives," wrote Richard Bernstein in his New York Times review of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette. Thurman details both the literary achievements and unconventional ways of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), usually known by her last name alone, who went from a provincial small town to make a place for herself in the arts scene of Paris. She wrote sexually frank novels such as Cheri and Gigi, along with plays, journalism, and film criticism, and she acted on the stage. She married three times and had numerous lovers of both sexes, including her stepson. In her middle age she gave birth to a daughter, whom she neglected; she also had a difficult relationship with her mother. Some reviewers noted that Thurman treats both Colette's gifts and flaws with fairness, and that the subject emerges as a fascinating woman whose life and art often intersected.

"Thurman is not in love with her subject," wrote Bernstein, who described Colette as "stubbornly interesting," but not a nice person. Antioch Review contributor Ann Cothran remarked that readers may end up "not liking Colette very much, but definitely knowing more about her than heretofore possible." Cothran praised the biography's "quantity of detail and evenhandedness of tone." Bernstein related that Thurman also offers "a smart assessment" of Colette's work and "a shrewd analysis of the links between her life and her fiction." Mavis Gallant, writing in the New York Times Book Review, observed that Colette's "private life … and her fictions are so interlocked that they can scarcely be told apart," making the biographer's task challenging. She thought, however, that Thurman had risen to the challenge, producing a "fine and intelligent biography of Colette, with her long tumultuous life and the great body of work scrupulously considered and presented with style." Bernstein added that Thurman's book "will stand as literature in its own right."

Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire, collects more than forty essays by Thurman, most of published in the New Yorker between 1987 and 2007. Her subjects include authors Charlotte Bronte and Gustave Flaubert, Holocaust victim Anne Frank, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, fashion designers Coco Chanel and Cristobal Balenciaga, photographers Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon, and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. There are also book reviews; pieces on tofu making, pearls, and eating disorders; and profiles of some lesser-known individuals, including performance artists and sex writers.

Some critics saw a connection between Thurman's essays and her work as a biographer. "She has the biographer's knack for distilling large amounts of information into manageable bites and an uncanny talent for picking the most surprising and salient details that speak volumes in only a few sentences," commented Los Angeles Times reviewer Meghan Daum. "To read Thurman on Anne Frank, Chanel and French critic and sex memoirist Catherine Millet, to name a few, is to feel that there is no need to read anything further on the subject." Booklist contributor Donna Seaman remarked that the essays, while written as journalism and sometimes tied to the release of a book or opening of an art show, are anything but ephemeral; instead, they are "exquisite works of art deserving a book's more lasting embrace." In a similar vein, Kathryn Harrison, writing in the New York Times Book Review, pronounced the contents "plenty good enough to preserve for posterity: they make an excellent book."

Poetry, for both children and adults, has been a substantial component of Thurman's body of work. On this topic, she once told CA: "My energy as a writer is ‘feminist,’ but my poetry has no consistent bias. Poems are occasions—I think they exist as much outside as inside a poet."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

AB Bookman's Weekly, May 9, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller, p. 3602.

Advocate, November 23, 1999, Carol Anshaw, review of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, p. 87.

Antioch Review, June 22, 2000, Ann Cothran, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 378.

Best Sellers, January, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 370.

Book, January, 2000, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 75.

Booklist, September 1, 1975, review of I Became Alone: Five Women Poets, p. 36; June 15, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 1468; January 1, 1979, review of The Magic Lantern: How Movies Got to Move, p. 753; November 1, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 338; November 1, 1997, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 495; October 15, 1999, Donna Seaman, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 411; January 1, 2000, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 814; September 1, 2007, Donna Seaman, review of Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire, p. 37.

Books, December 25, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 25.

Books & Bookmen, February, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 31.

British Book News, May, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 320.

Center for Children's Books Bulletin, September, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 19; January, 1979, review of Lost & Found, p. 91.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May, 2000, R. Merker, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 1656.

Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 27; May 4, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 9; October 21, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 16.

Commonweal, December 3, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 663.

Curriculum Review, February 15, 1977, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 47; October, 1979, review of Lost & Found, p. 308.

Economist, December 4, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. S13.

Entertainment Weekly, November 26, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 86.

French Review, May, 2001, Melanie Hawthorne, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 1246.

Harper's, March, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 67.

Horn Book, August, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 418.

Hudson Review, summer, 2000, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 193.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1975, review of I Became Alone, p. 786; February 1, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 138; February 15, 1977, review of I'd Like to Try a Monster's Eye, p. 164; January 15, 1979, review of The Magic Lantern, p. 69; August 15, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 987; October 1, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 1565; July 1, 2007, review of Cleopatra's Nose.

Library Journal, October 15, 1982, Myrna J. McCallister, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 155; August 1, 1997, James Dudley, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 1990; October 1, 1999, Jeris Cassel, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 92; August 1, 2007, Audrey Snowden, review of Cleopatra's Nose, p. 88.

London Review of Books, July 3, 1986, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 10; March 16, 2000, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 3.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 31, 1999, Edmund White, "Lust for Life," p. 9; December 16, 2007, Meghan Daum, review of Cleopatra's Nose, p. 8.

Maclean's, December 27, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 45.

Modern Fiction Studies, winter, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 10.

Ms., November, 1982, Katha Pollitt, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 26; June, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 34.

Nation, February 19, 1983, Phyllis Rose, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 212; December 24, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 668.

National Review, September 17, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 156.

New Age Journal, June, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 68.

New Statesman, December 31, 1982, Anne Smith, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 24.

Newsweek, December 27, 1982, Jean Strouse, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 59; December 23, 1985, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 75; October 25, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 86.

New Yorker, March 28, 1983, William Maxwell, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 113.

New York Review of Books, July 17, 1986, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 21.

New York Times, November 3, 1999, Richard Bernstein, "So Saucy, in Her Life and Her Work," p. E4.

New York Times Book Review, November 14, 1982, Margaret Drabble, "A Tale of Destiny," p. 1; October 17, 1999, Mavis Gallant, "The Pursuit of Pleasure," p. 12; November 11, 2007, Kathryn Harrison, "Lost Women," p. 10.

Observer (London, England), November 28, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 31; December 30, 1984, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 19; October 31, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 11.

Parnassus: Poetry in Review, winter, 1980, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 64.

Publishers Weekly, November 20, 1978, review of The Magic Lantern, p. 61; August 27, 1982, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 352; August 19, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 77; September 6, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 89; May 28, 2007, review of Cleopatra's Nose, p. 45.

Reading Teacher, January, 1983, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 381.

Reference & Research Book News, March, 1996, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 61.

San Francisco Review of Books, January, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 15.

Saturday Review, May 15, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 37.

School Library Journal, October, 1975, review of I Became Alone, p. 108; April, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 66; May, 1976, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems, p. 35; May, 1977, review of I Became Alone, p. 39; September, 1977, review of I'd Like to Try a Monster's Eye, p. 117; November, 1978, review of Lost & Found, p. 51; February, 1979, review of The Magic Lantern, p. 60.

Science Books & Films, March, 1980, review of The Magic Lantern, p. 230.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 28, 2007, Travis Nichols, "A Moment with … Judith Thurman, Literary Critic," p. C1.

Sewanee Review, July, 1984, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 495.

Social Education, March, 1980, review of The Magic Lantern, p. 248.

Southern Humanities Review, winter, 1985, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 73.

Spectator, November 13, 1999, Jame Gardam, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 60.

Time, November 28, 1982, Stefan Kanfer, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 90.

Times Educational Supplement, January 18, 1985, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 28.

Times Literary Supplement, January 21, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 49; March 3, 2000, Claire Harman, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 26.

Top of the News, spring, 1987, review of Flashlight, and Other Poems and Lost & Found, p. 310.

Village Voice, March 1, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 37.

Virginia Quarterly Review, spring, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 51.

Vogue, January, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 55.

Wall Street Journal, October 14, 1999, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. A24.

Washington Post Book World, October 10, 1999, Michael Dirda, review of Secrets of the Flesh, p. 15.

World Literature Today, summer, 1983, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 466.

Yale Review, winter, 1984, Le Anne Schreiber, review of Isak Dinesen, p. 285.