Alfred Kazin

Alfred Kazin
Kazin in 1973
Born(1915-05-05)May 5, 1915
New York City, U.S.
DiedMay 5, 1998(1998-05-05) (aged 83)
New York City, U.S.
Occupations
  • Literary critic
  • writer
  • professor
Spouse(s)Natasha Dohn (divorced)
Caroline Bookman (divorced)
Ann Birstein (1952-1982)
Judith Dunford (1983-1998)
Children2

Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic. His literary reviews appeared in The New York Times, the New York Herald-Tribune, The New Republic and The New Yorker. He wrote often about the immigrant experience in early twentieth-century America. His trilogy of memoirs, A Walker in the City (1951), Starting Out in the Thirties (1965) and New York Jew (1978), were all finalists for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

He was a distinguished professor of English at Stony Brook University of the State University of New York (1963-1973) and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (1973-1978, 1979-1985).