Elizabeth Hardwick
Hardwick in the 1980s
Born	(1916-07-27)July 27, 1916 Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	December 2, 2007(2007-12-02) (aged 91) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Literary critic essayist novelist
Alma mater	University of Kentucky (BA,MA) Columbia University
Notable awards	Guggenheim Fellowship American Academy of Arts and Letters (1977)
Spouse	Robert Lowell ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1972)​

Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick (July 27, 1916 – December 2, 2007) was an Americanliterary critic, novelist, andshort story writer.^[1]

Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick was born as the eighth of eleven children inLexington, Kentucky, on July 27, 1916, to strictProtestant parents,^[1][2] the daughter of Eugene Allen Hardwick, a plumbing and heating contractor, and Mary (née Ramsey) Hardwick.^[1]

She graduated from theUniversity of Kentucky with a BA in 1938 and with an MA in 1939. She then entered the PhD program atColumbia University, though withdrew from graduate study in 1941 to concentrate on writing. She was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship in 1947.^[3]

In 1959, Hardwick published "The Decline of Book Reviewing" inHarper's Magazine, a generally harsh and even scathing critique of book reviews published in American periodicals of the time. She published four books of criticism:A View of My Own (1962),Seduction and Betrayal (1974),Bartleby in Manhattan (1983), andSight-Readings (1998).^[1] In 1961, she editedThe Selected Letters of William James.^[1]

The1962 New York City newspaper strike helped inspire Hardwick,Robert Lowell,Jason Epstein,Barbara Epstein, andRobert B. Silvers to foundThe New York Review of Books, a publication that became as much a habit for many readers asThe New York Times Book Review, which Hardwick had eviscerated in her 1959 essay.^[2]

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Hardwick taught writing seminars atBarnard College andColumbia University'sSchool of the Arts, Writing Division. She gave forthright critiques of student writing and was a mentor to students she considered promising.^[4]

She was elected afellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.^[5] In 2000, she published a short biography,Herman Melville, in Viking Press's Penguin Lives series.^[1]

In 2008, theLibrary of America selected Hardwick's account ofCaryl Chessman's crimes for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime writing. A collection of her short fiction,The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick, was publishedposthumously in 2010,^[6] as wasThe Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick in 2017.^[7]

In 2021, Cathy Curtis published a biography of Hardwick,A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick.^[8][9]

From July 28, 1949, until their eventual divorce in 1972, Hardwick was married toRobert Lowell, thePulitzer Prize‐winning poet from the prominentBoston Brahmin family. Despite the difficulties of their often tumultuous union,^[10] Hardwick maintained that Lowell was the best thing that had ever happened to her.^[11] Their daughter was Harriet Lowell.^[1]

Hardwick died in aManhattan hospital on December 2, 2007, aged 91.^[1][12]

• The Ghostly Lover. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. 1945.ISBN 0912946962.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• The Simple Truth. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. 1955.ISBN 0912946989.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Sleepless Nights. New York: Random house. 1979.ISBN 0394505271.
• The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick. New York: New York Review Books. 2010.ISBN 978-1590172872. (Posthumous; edited byDarryl Pinckney)

• A View of My Own: Essays in Literature and Society. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy. 1962.ISBN 0912946911.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature. New York: Random house. 1974.ISBN 039449069X.
• Bartleby in Manhattan and Other Essays. New York: Random House. 1983.ISBN 0394528808.
• Sight-Readings: American Fictions. New York: Random house. 1998.ISBN 0375501274.
• Herman Melville. New York: Viking Adult. 2000.ISBN 0670891584. (Published as part of thePenguin Lives Series)
• The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick. New York: New York Review Books. 2017.ISBN 978-1681371542. (Posthumous; edited by Darryl Pinckney)
• The Uncollected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick. New York: New York Review Books. 2022.ISBN 978-1681376233. (Posthumous; edited by Alex Andriesse)

Wikiquote has quotations related toElizabeth Hardwick.

• Elizabeth Hardwick CollectionArchived May 22, 2011, at theWayback Machine at theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.
• Guide to the Elizabeth Hardwick manuscript, 1955 housed at theUniversity of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center.

• 1916 births
• 2007 deaths
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American novelists
• 20th-century American short story writers
• 20th-century American women novelists
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• American women short story writers
• Columbia University faculty
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Novelists from Kentucky
• The New York Review of Books people
• The New York Review of Books
• University of Kentucky alumni
• Writers from Lexington, Kentucky
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